Book Review: The Checklist Manifesto

After a long delay, I was finally able to finish The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande. 

Atul Gawande is a well-known surgeon who has written several best-selling novels on a variety of topics in Medicine. In the Checklist Manifesto, he discusses the importance of using checklists to reduce error and improve overall quality and safety. I am interested in Hospital Medicine after I complete my residency training and Quality Improvement is an important part of this job. Gawande spends a good portion of the book recounting his experiences working with the World Health Organization to develop a surgical safety checklist to be implemented in hospitals around the world. He was quite successful in this endeavor and use of this checklist led to substantial reductions in surgical error and post-op complications. Subsequently, surgical safety checklists have become the standard of care in hospitals everywhere.

While part of being a leader is being creative and thinking out of the box, when you are stuck, one should always go back to the basics. Checklists are such a simple concept, but like Gawande, I have found them to be extremely useful. When the human brain is under stress at work or in situations that are life-threatening, like those experienced by the pilots and emergency response teams in this book, it forgets even the most basic things. Checklists are there to ensure that this stress-induced memory loss does not lead to serious and sometimes fatal consequences. The reason that The Checklist Manifesto has such an impact on the reader is because, like the author's other books, it includes many stories of how checklists have saved lives in hospitals and other situations.

In the future, my goal is to use these concepts and the power of a checklist to reduce patient error and improve overall quality of care. To scoff at the use of checklists in the hospital would not be wise - I have interacted with many overwhelmed and overworked healthcare providers, whose lapses in judgement have led to infections, blood clots, heart attacks, cardiac arrests, and numerous other complications. No provider intentionally makes these mistakes, but we are only human, and it is unfortunately inevitable. All we can do is try to reduce error as much as possible, and as one can see from the results in Gawande's book, the reductions in error with the use of checklists are quite astounding.

In technical terms, the book is well written, and I think it will appeal to not only healthcare providers, but also to the general population. The author includes examples of checklists in many different fields, including but not limited to medicine, aviation, cooking, and construction. The only downside to this book, for me, is that it didn't have that "can't put down" quality that most of my favorite books have. It took me a very long time to get through the book, but once I had finished, I found it to be time well spent.

I look forward to reading more by this author. I recently bought his book, Being Mortal, regarding end of life care in the United States, and I am looking forward to starting it.

Happy Reading! Stay tuned for my other November reviews.

My Rating: 4 stars

Featured Poet/Book Review: Musings of a Madman by Adam Levon Brown

Hey guys,

For the month of September, I got to tackle something new. I had the opportunity to review a wonderful book of poems, Musings of a Madman by Adam Levon Brown. I am so happy to have had the chance to do so! I am having trouble posting a picture of the cover as I normally do, so if blogspot cooperates, I will do so later.

This collection is well written and many of the poems are simply lovely. My favorites include: Dare to Dream, Ecocide, I Can't Breathe, Star Stuff, and Cinematic Bloodbath.

The main overarching themes of this collection are the importance of love, as well as living simply and learning to coexist peacefully with others. Many of the poems in this book focus on these themes. However, the author also includes several powerful pieces about a variety of issues, including racism, classism, war, police brutality, and white privilege.

The white privilege poem was especially interesting to me. Although I am not white and have never experienced this sort of privilege, my experiences in grad school at an HBCU made me very aware of the advantages that I do enjoy. I am part of what is known as the "model minority", which refers to Asians and South Asians. We are "well educated" and expected to become researchers, healthcare providers, and engineers.

It has been many years since India gained its independence, but the impact of British rule is still felt today. I've lost count of the number of times that I have heard members of my community casually remark on how darker skin is undesirable. It hurts to hear my brown classmates and coworkers say things to my black colleagues that were undeniably insulting. When called out on it, of course, they always become defensive and angry - how could I possibly think they were racist?

Brown repeatedly brings up the point that if we stay silent, we can hardly expect things to change. I am not perfect, but I will continue to try to make those around me aware of the advantages that we have as the more favorable minority, despite the fact that our skin tone is hardly different from that of Africans and African Americans. We need to do better by using this advantage to help other persons of color who are at a disadvantage.

As I have seen repeatedly during my interactions with patients and staff during my career so far, stereotypes are incredibly harmful. Cancer, Heart Attacks, Alcoholism, Sexually Transmitted Diseases - they do not discriminate. The middle aged Caucasian man in my clinic is as likely to be abusing narcotics as the young black male. The elderly grandma may be an alcoholic. If I didn't routinely screen everyone for many of these issues, regardless of age, race, class,  level of income or education, I would not be doing my duty.

In technical terms, the book was well formatted and well edited. I only noticed a few typos. I enjoyed that poems were written in different styles - some felt more like songs while others were more intense and written in short, hard-hitting sentences. Brown switches back and forth between lighter and darker themes, which worked well. This kept me engaged and didn't allow me to become overwhelmed by the heavier subjects.

To sum up, this was a wonderful read. I would love to read more from this author!

My Rating: 4 stars

Happy reading and stay tuned for my second September book review!

-- chaitime212

September Reading List

Hey Everyone, 

This month, I will be reading the following: 

1. Musings of a Madman, a poetry book by Adam Brown

2. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

3. Possibly something by Oliver Sacks, a well known neurologist who died this week, if anyone has any suggestions and if time permits! 

Stay Tuned,

chaitime212

Book Review: The Gaugin Connection by Estelle Ryan

Hey Guys,

Here's the last book review of August! I recently had the pleasure of reading The Gauguin Connection by Estelle Ryan, which is an introduction to the Genevieve Lenard series. What a cool book! It combines my love for art and mystery novels into a novel that I couldn't put down. Genevieve Lenard is a very unusual heroine. She is a highly functioning autistic person and initially is very misunderstood. Over the course of the novel, not only does she solve a complex case, but develops several new relationships, including a potentially romantic relationship.

This book is much much more than just a simple mystery. It forces us to think about the assumptions we make about people who view the world differently from us. At work, I interact with patients from all walks of life and I put a great deal of effort into approaching every case in as neutral a manner as possible. Assumptions only hurt us and prevent us from growing, and I think this concept is presented very clearly in the Gauguin Connection. Genevieve ends up forming strong bonds with people in the most unlikely places.

In terms of character development, I loved the main character. She was brave, spunky, and funny. She was well developed and her interactions with the other characters were humorous at times. I enjoyed reading about the budding relationship between Genevieve and Colin and would love to read more. The book was well paced and kept me engaged. I was eager to see Genevieve solve the mystery

In technical terms, the book was well written with no noticeable typos. The characters were well written and complex. I would be interested in reading more about the early days of Genevieve's relationship with Philip. I would also love to learn more about Colin and Vinnie's past. This book is followed by several others in the series, and when I get the chance, I am looking forward to working my way through the rest of the series. I would also be interested in reading other books by Ms. Ryan as her writing style greatly appeals to me. Overall quite an enjoyable read and I would definitely recommend checking this series out!

My Review: 5 Stars

Happy Reading,
chaitime212