Using a combination of statistics and common sense, Gawande came up with the idea of using checklists to monitor and track surgical procedures. The idea, which was already in use in other industries, was relatively simple in its concept and execution. It consisted of a routine set of procedures (documented in checklists) that should be performed before, during, and after an operation. The list was a mix of routine and complicated tasks, from ensuring introductions between doctors before an operation to maintaining the correct settings for a medical instrument for a complex operation.
The idea’s simplicity was key to its success.
Endorsements flowed in after it was rolled out. The United Kingdom’s National Health Service became an enthusiastic supporter. Pauline Philip, executive secretary of WHO’s Patient Safety Program, said the program was a “huge success.” As of 2015, checklists were in use in 100 million of the total 300 million surgery operating theaters worldwide.
Gawande, who has just been named CEO of a new initiative launched by Warren Buffett, Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos, and JP Morgan Chase Inc. (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon, will need to devise a similarly ingenious and simple solution to tackle one of the biggest and most complex systems in the world: the US healthcare system. (See also: Buffett, Bezos, And Dimon To Found New Healthcare Company).
Who Is Dr. Atul Gawande?
Dr. Atul Gawande was born on November 5, 1965 to immigrants from India. His father was one among 13 siblings in a small farming village in the country. The death of his grandmother due to malaria convinced Dr. Gawande’s father to become a doctor. Soon after graduation from medical school, he was offered the opportunity to complete his residency in America and ended up in Brooklyn, where his son was born.
Like most Indian-American kids, Gawande was expected to follow in his parent’s footsteps. But he has kept his options open over the years. In addition to biology, he studied political science at Stanford University during his undergraduate years. As a Rhodes Scholar, Gawande earned a degree in philosophy, politics, and economics from the University of Oxford. He also worked in politics for a time, managing a 75-person policy unit in the Clinton administration for some time. But he went back to medical school after the experience. “I decided that I didn’t want my future to be beholden to a politician,” he has said.
Even after becoming a doctor, Gawande refused to be typecast into the role. He works as a journalist and writer in addition to his medical duties. After the publication of his first article in the magazine, Gawande continued to write about medicine and the healthcare industry in the New Yorker and has authored four books on its practice. The books deal with various aspects of the profession, from making operations more efficient to changing the medical field’s relationship with mortality. The blend of being a medical professional and writer has allowed Gawande to wear different hats and approach problems in his field from multiple perspectives. He won the MacArthur Genius Grant in 2006 for “articulating [modern surgical practice’s] realities, complexities, and challenges, in the interest of improving outcomes and saving lives.”
Kathleen Hobson, Gawande’s wife is a former comparative literature major who has worked in the publishing industry and as a writer and editor. In an int…