Atul Gawande and "Better" - A Medical Student's Review

As a med student, and one who had recently completed his surgery rotation, I feel I had a relatively unique perspective while reading this book, as compared to most readers. It was also interesting to read this book and gauge my reactions, relative to how I reacted when reading Gawande's prior book Complications. When I read Gawande's first book, I had not yet started medical school, and had at best, an educated lay person's background. I found the stories there intriguing and confirmed my romantic notions of medicine. This book mirrors my own internal evolution to a certain degree. Less romanticized, more practical, it discusses more of the everyday issues in medicine, ones that I see often as a student out on the wards. People do not wash hands as much as they should, the science of efficiency has not been applied to medicine, and the book takes us all to account for that. While medical technology has become remarkably efficient and high-tech, the actual delivery of medicine leaves much to be desired. Anyway, I digress.

The book reads very much like Complications. Gawande presents 12 separate essays about different aspects of healthcare, from the advances in obstetrics to the lack of investment in studying the provision of care to the doctors who are involved with executing prisoners who have been given the death penalty. Unlike Complications though, Gawande injects more of his own personal opinions after a more dispassionate presentation of each subject. The writing is sparse and clear, making it easy to read. Some of the chapters read almost like a medical Profiles in Courage

However, unlike Complications, this book did not leave me feeling as enthralled. Perhaps I have become jaded by medicine, or perhaps the topics of 'improving' medicine are simply not exciting. I think I liked Complications better simply because it dealt with more esoteric issues. While I agree with Gawande that the topics covered in Better are more important and can potentially affect many more people, the cases covered in Complications are simply more intriguing, such as the woman with necrotizing fascitis, or the reporter who sweat too much.

Overall: 9 out of 10 - a good engaging read that covers many important and relevant topics.

Updated 2015-12-06