I like this paragraph of the article best (but there are a lot of other good paragraphs, building to an overall good whole, so I encourage you to read the whole

I like this paragraph of the article best (but there are a lot of other good paragraphs, building to an overall good whole, so I encourage you to read the whole article): "In Better, Atul Gawande argues that when we think of improving medicine, we always imagine making new advances, discovering the gene responsible for a disease, and so on — and forget that we can simply take what we already know how to do, and figure out how to do it better. In a word, iterate." That's exactly it. Medicine improves most dramatically simply by spreading the word about how to prevent and how to treat illnesses better to everyone who hasn't mastered that yet. That's the biggest single factor in steadily reducing death rates at all ages all over the developing world.[1] The one time I had an immediate family member who needed treatment for a puzzling disease, my mom was still working as a surgical nurse in our state's main research university's teaching hospital. She knew who the best surgeon was, who the best surgical resident was, who the best anesthesiologist was, and who the best surgical nurses were. My relative was able to recover fully very soon after surgery that THAT surgeon thought had "nil" risk--he was confident of his abilities, with justification. Now that my mom is not in active practice of nursing anymore, I would like a better consumer-facing channel for information about which surgeons are the best in town. I would definitely ask the nurses I know who work at teaching hospitals if the question came up again for my family. [1] An article in a series on Slate, "Why Are You Not Dead Yet? Life expectancy doubled in past 150 years. Here’s why"[3] Provides some of the background. http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science_of_longevity/2013/09/life_expectancy_history_public_health_and_medical_advances_that_lead_to.html http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science_of_... Life expectancy at age 40, at age 60, and at even higher ages is still rising throughout the developed countries of the world.[4] http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v307/n3/box/scientificamerican0912-54_BX1.html http://www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v307/n3/box...