‘A searing, deeply humane collection of essays about medical practice that has all the makings of a modern classic’

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‘A searing, deeply humane collection of essays about medical
practice that has all the makings of a modern classic’
Sunday Times
‘Rich in fascinating detail … as engaging to the layman as to
the practising or studying doctor’ 
Economist
‘Reading him is rewarding’ 
TLS
‘An introspective, enthusiastic, gifted and thoughtful
storyteller … A brilliant diagnosis of medicine’s ills’
British Medical Journal
‘A fascinating study’ 
Irish Tatler
‘Gawande is an accomplished author and doesn’t shy away
from hot topics like malpractice, while his writing is clear and
refreshingly free from off-putting medical jargon.’
Sunday Tribune
‘Riveting’ 
Irish Examiner
Atul Gawande
is one of the world’s most distinguished
doctors. A 2006 MacArthur Fellow, he is a general surgeon at
the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a staff writer
for the 
New Yorker
, an associate professor at Harvard Medical
School and the bestselling author of
Complications: A Surgeon’s
Notes on an Imperfect Science
, also published by Profile. He lives
with his wife and children in Newton, Massachusetts.
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a l s o   b y  At u l   G awa n d e
Complications: 
A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science
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Better
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Better
A   S u r g e o n ’ s   N ot e s  
o n   Pe r f o r m a n c e
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Atul Gawande
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This paperback edition published in 2008
First published in Great Britain in 2007 by 
PROFILE BOOKS LTD
3A Exmouth House 
Pine Street
London EC1R 0JH
www.profilebooks.com
First published in the United States of America in 2007 by
Metropolitan Books
Copyright © Atul Gawande, 2007, 2008
Several of these chapters have appeared, in different form, 
in the 
New Yorker
and the 
New England Journal of Medicine
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 
Designed by Meryl Sussman Lavavi
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
Bookmarque, Croydon, Surrey
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part
of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record-
ing or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and
the publisher of this book.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 86197 657 4
This book is printed on FSC certified paper