Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science

Urg one of my favourite non-fiction books that it purely information based (basically completely “plot based” as opposed to something like Henrietta Lacks that followed one person and explained how that related to the history of ethics and use of HeLa)
Split into lots of seemingly unrelated chapters which makes it really easy to read for me (with a short attention span) as it changes between multiple different topics.
Gawande is also a very skilled writer and the book was one of the first which truly inspired me to be a doctor.

Well, I'm glad I read this AFTER my major surgery, yuk yuk yuk.

V good. V early 2000s non-fiction. About the human fallibility of doctors, and how we turn a blind eye to that when we think of medicine. Everyone wants expertise, no one wants a doctor still learning the ropes.

Favorite chapter was maybe on gastric bypass surgery? Also that flesh-eating bacteria, wow. I felt unsatisfied by the chapter on “bad” doctors - aka, when doctors just... get burnt out? Tired? Overwhelmed? It felt too mushy. Maybe that was the point.

Anyway, def fun. What is Atul Gawande up to these days?????

Key takeaways:

- I really enjoyed the chapter about hernias, and how computers tend to be better than doctors at diagnosing conditions. It's easy to think that my experience makes me better in most cases than a computer or algorithm could be, but that isn't the case. I expect this would be true outside of diagnosing disease, and should apply in other fields as well.
- The hernia chapter also discussed the success of a hospital that only repairs hernias. They are significantly more efficient and have a much higher success rate. Again, this could likely be extrapolated to other areas of life as well.

Intriguing. Gawande covers aspects of complexity that make medicine so much more an art than a science, against doctors' self-image and certainly, against patient expectation.

In the end, the book is an interesting collection of essays, not slow enough to bore me and make me stop reading, but also not enough of a page turner to keep me fired up for more, except the prospect of reaching the end and moving on to another book. Go figure.

Gripping. Really recommend this one if you are interested case studies. Not too technical either.