Atul Gawande is the author of several best-selling books, including Complications, which was a National Book Award finalist; Better; The Checklist Manifesto; and Being Mortal. He is also a surgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, a New Yorker staff writer, and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has received the Lewis Thomas Prize for Science Writing, a MacArthur Fellowship, and two National Magazine Awards. He is the Founder and Chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and Lifebox, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making surgery safer around the world.

Atul Gawande's latest best-seller, The Checklist Manifesto, reveals what the simple concept of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it. The book is among the best books on health care.

The modern world has provided us with incredible knowledge. Nonetheless, avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the legal system, the financial sector, and almost every other organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has outstripped our ability as individuals to deliver it to people in a consistent, correct, and safe manner. We train longer, specialize more, and use ever-improving technology, but we still fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference. Already, a simple surgical checklist developed by the World Health Organization based on the ideas described here has been adopted as a standard of care in more than twenty countries and has been dubbed "the biggest clinical invention in thirty years" (The Independent).

Author: Atul Gawande

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Checklist-Manifesto-How-Things-Right/dp/0312430000/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 7214 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #3,232 in Books

#1 in Family Practice Medicine

#2 in Hospital Administration (Books)

#7 in Time Management (Books)

Jerome Groopman, M.D., is a Harvard Medical School professor and the chief of experimental medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He is the author of How Doctors Think, The Anatomy of Hope, Second Opinions, The Measure of Our Days, and other books, as well as a staff writer for The New Yorker.

A physician will usually interrupt a patient who is describing her symptoms after eighteen seconds. Many doctors make decisions on the most likely diagnosis and best treatment in that short period of time. Decisions made in this manner are frequently correct, but they can also be incorrect at critical times, with disastrous consequences. Jerome Groopman pinpoints the forces and thought processes behind the decisions doctors make in this revolutionary book, offering direct, intelligent questions patients can ask their doctors to help them get back on track. How Doctors Think reveals an important approach to twenty-first-century medical practice, giving doctors and patients a way to make better decisions together, based on extensive interviews with some of the country's best doctors and Groopman's own experiences as a doctor and as a patient.

Author: Jerome Groopman

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/How-Doctors-Think-Jerome-Groopman/dp/0547053649/

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 976 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #47,282 in Books

#9 in Doctor-Patient Relations

#16 in Medical Diagnosis (Books)

#25 in Medical Education & Training (Books)

Clayton M. Christensen is the Harvard Business School's Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration. Christensen is also a co-founder of the management consulting firm Innosight, the investment firm Rose Park Advisors, and the non-profit think tank Innosight Institute.

The late Dr. Jerome H. Grossman directed the Harvard/Kennedy School Health Care Delivery Policy Program. His leadership spanned business and health care, as he was a nationally recognized health care policy expert and a pioneer in health informatics.

Jason Hwang, M.D., is an internal medicine physician and senior strategist for the Healthcare Practice at Innosight LLC, a consulting firm specializing in innovation and strategy. Innosight Institute, a non-profit social innovation think tank, he co-founded and serves as the Executive Director of Healthcare.

Our health-care system is in critical need of repair. Every year, fewer Americans can afford it, fewer businesses can supply it, and fewer government programs can guarantee it for future generations. We require a cure immediately.

Clayton M. Christensen of Harvard Business School, author of the best-selling The Innovator's Dilemma, presents The Innovator's Prescription, a comprehensive analysis of the strategies that will improve and make health care more affordable. It is among the best books on health care. With two pioneers in the field, Dr. Jerome Grossman and Dr. Jason Hwang, Christensen applies the principles of disruptive innovation to the broken health care system. They look at a variety of symptoms and offer tried-and-true solutions.

You will learn how:

• "Precision medicine" lowers costs while delivering on the promise of personalized care.
• By changing the way hospitals and doctors work, disruptive business models improve quality, accessibility, and affordability. Patient networks enable better treatment of chronic diseases.
• Employers can alter their roles in health care to compete effectively in the globalization era.
• Insurance and regulatory reforms cause health-care disruption.

Author: Clayton M. Christensen, Jason Hwang M.D. and Jerome H. Grossman

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071592083

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 320 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #716,010 in Books

#302 in Health Policy (Books)

#801 in Health Care Delivery (Books)

#5,713 in Business Management (Books)

Michael E. Porter, Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration, is the author of Competitive Strategy, the recipient of the 1979 McKinsey Foundation Award for The Best Harvard Business Review Article, and a Wall Street Journal guest columnist. Professor Porter created the highly regarded MBA course on Industry and Competitive Analysis, lectures extensively on competitive strategy, and serves as a strategic consultant to a number of companies in the United States and abroad.

The health-care system in the United States is in disarray. The quality of care for millions of Americans is at stake, as is the financial well-being of individuals and employers who are being squeezed by skyrocketing premiums, not to mention the fiscal stability of state and federal government budgets.

Redefining Health Care, co-authored by internationally renowned strategy expert Michael Porter and innovation expert Elizabeth Teisberg, reveals the underlying—and largely ignored—causes of the problem and offers a powerful prescription for change.

The authors contend that competition is currently occurring at the wrong level—among health plans, networks, and hospitals—rather than where it is most important, in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of specific health conditions. Instead of creating value for patients, system participants accumulate bargaining power and shift costs in a zero-sum competition. Based on an in-depth examination of the United States' health-care system, Redefining Health Care lays out a game-changing framework for redefining competition in health-care delivery—and unleashing stunning improvements in quality and efficiency.

This book demonstrates how to shift health care toward positive-sum competition that benefits everyone, with specific recommendations for hospitals, doctors, health plans, employers, and policymakers.

Author: Michael E. Porter

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591397782

Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars (from 187 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #153,795 in Books

#47 in Health Policy (Books)

#216 in Economic Conditions (Books)

#1,373 in Business Management (Books)

Former Surgeon General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan, C. Everett Koop, M.D., is a Senior Scholar at Dartmouth College and the Elizabeth DeCamp McInerney Professor of Surgery at Dartmouth Medical School.

Clarence E. Pearson is a senior advisor in the WHO office at the United Nations, as well as the former president and CEO of the National Center for Health Education.

The president of the China Medical Board of New York, Inc. is M. Roy Schwarz, M.D. He was the American Medical Association's previous senior vice president.

Among the best books on health care, Critical Issues in Global Health is an outstanding collection of knowledge and thought from a distinguished panel of internationally renowned medical and public health experts that provides insight into the most pressing health issues confronting our global populations. Individual contributors to the volume come from a variety of prestigious health organizations and institutions, including the World Health Organization, the National Academy of Sciences, the Kellogg and Rockefeller Foundations, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Public Health Association. These never-before-published essays, edited by C. Everett Koop, Clarence E. Pearson, and M. Roy Schwarz, explore the future of international health and explain what will be required to provide adequate health and medical care worldwide, particularly in developing countries.

Author: C. Everett Koop, Clarence E. Pearson and M. Roy Schwarz

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Issues-Global-Clarence-Pearson/dp/0787948241/

Ratings: 4.9 out of 5 stars (from 11 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #3,608,025 in Books

#284 in Preventive Dentistry

#841 in Internal Medicine (Books)

#1,267 in Health Care Delivery (Books)

Fred Lee began his medical career in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, at Shawnee Mission Medical Center. He won several national awards for innovative approaches to patient satisfaction and loyalty during his five years as vice president of marketing and development. He then became a senior vice president at Florida Hospital in Orlando, where he created a nationally acclaimed guest relations program. Fred then became a cast member at Disney University for the Walt Disney Company.

Author Fred Lee challenges the assumptions that have defined customer service in healthcare by using examples from his work with Disney and as a senior-level hospital executive. In this one-of-a-kind book, he focuses on the parallels between Disney and hospitals, arguing that both provide a "experience," not just a service. It demonstrates how hospitals can adopt the strategies that have earned Disney's guests' and employees' trust and loyalty.

If Disney Ran Your Hospital explains why standard service excellence initiatives in healthcare have not resulted in high patient satisfaction and loyalty, and it provides ninety-two principles to help hospitals gain the competitive advantage that comes from being seen as "the best" by their own employees, consumers, and community.

Author: Fred Lee

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0974386014

Ratings: 4.6 out of 5 stars (from 672 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #68,379 in Books

#7 in Hospital Administration (Books)

#19 in Health Care Delivery (Books)

In La Jolla, California, Eric J. Topol, M.D., is a professor of innovative medicine and the director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute. At the Cleveland Clinic, he founded the world's first cardiovascular gene bank and conducted one of the first trials of a genetically engineered protein for treating heart attacks. He received his training at Johns Hopkins University.

What if your phone could detect cancer cells in your blood or alert you to an impending heart attack? Mobile wireless digital devices, such as smartphones and tablets with seemingly limitless functionality, have transformed our lives by enabling hyper-connectivity to social networks and cloud computing. However, the digital world has yet to penetrate the medical cocoon.

Until now, that is. We'll soon be checking our vital signs on our phones instead of reading email and surfing the web. While we sleep, we can already continuously monitor our heart rate, blood glucose levels, and brain waves. The stethoscope is being replaced by miniature ultrasound imaging devices. Already, DNA sequencing, Facebook, and the Watson supercomputer have saved lives. For the first time, we can collect all relevant data from each individual in order to enable precision therapy, avoid major side effects of medications, and, ultimately, prevent many diseases from occurring. Despite this, many of these digital medical innovations go unutilized due to the medical community's strong resistance to change. Eric Topol, one of the nation's top physicians and a leading voice on the digital revolution in medicine, argues in The Creative Destruction of Medicine that radical innovation and true democratization of medical care are within reach, but only if we consumers demand it. We have the ability to force medicine to undergo its most radical transformation in history. This book explains what the stakes are—and how to win them.

Author: Eric Topol

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Destruction-Medicine-Digital-Revolution/dp/0465025501/

Ratings: 4.4 out of 5 stars (from 348 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #342,589 in Books

#51 in Medical Informatics (Books)

#82 in Biotechnology (Books)

#310 in Health Care Delivery (Books)

Atul Gawande is the bestselling author of four books, including Complications, which was nominated for a National Book Award, Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. He is also a surgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, a New Yorker staff writer, and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He has received the Lewis Thomas Prize for Science Writing, a MacArthur Fellowship, and two National Magazine Awards. He is the Founder and Chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and Lifebox, a nonprofit organization dedicated to making surgery safer around the world.

Sometimes in medicine, the only way to truly understand what is going on in a patient is to operate, to look inside with one's own eyes. Among the best books on health care, Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science is exploratory surgery on medicine, exposing a science not in its idealized form, but as it is: complicated, perplexing, and profoundly human.

Atul Gawande provides an unflinching view from the scalpel's edge, where science is ambiguous, information is scarce, and decisions must be made. He investigates how deadly mistakes occur and why good surgeons go bad through dramatic and revealing stories of patients and doctors. He also shows us what happens when medicine meets the inexplicable: an architect with incapacitating back pain for which there is no physical cause; a young woman with nausea that won't go away; and a television newscaster with severe blushing that prevents her from doing her job. Gawande paints a richly detailed portrait of people and science while confronting the paradoxes and imperfections inherent in caring for human lives.

Complications is a new kind of medical writing, nuanced and lucid, unafraid to confront the conflicts and uncertainties at the heart of modern medicine while remaining open to the possibilities of wisdom in this extraordinary endeavor.

Author: Atul Gawande

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0805063196/

Ratings: 4.7 out of 5 stars (from 2584 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #256,642 in Books

#114 in General Surgery

#201 in Medical Education & Training (Books)

#464 in Medical Professional Biographies

Laurie Barkin has worked on in-patient units and day treatment centers as a staff nurse and head nurse, as a psych liaison nurse, and as a psych nursing instructor at the University of San Francisco School of Nursing. She worked as a psychiatric nurse for 22 years before writing The Comfort Garden: Tales from the Trauma Unit. She has planned and led nurse retreats as well as staff support groups. She works as a consultant for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and provides support to psychiatric staff at San Francisco General Hospital.

The American Journal of Nursing (AJN) named The Comfort Garden: Tales from the Trauma Unit Book of the Year, and it also won a Nautilus award. Laurie Barkin's account of her five years as a psychiatric nurse on the surgical/trauma unit at San Francisco General Hospital is told in this story. The Comfort Garden is a metaphor for the emotional support caregivers require, set against the backdrop of patients who have survived car accidents, falls, fires, fists, bullets, and knives. The story sheds light on the issues of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma that can arise in caregivers when tragedy becomes routine.

The Comfort Garden will appeal to health care professionals, firefighters, police officers, war veterans, social workers, journalists, students, and anyone else whose life has been affected by trauma.

Author: Laurie Barkin RN, MS

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Garden-Tales-Trauma-Unit/dp/0984496548/

Ratings: 4.8 out of 5 stars (from 51 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #1,532,912 in Books

#1,858 in Popular Neuropsychology

#2,107 in Medical Psychology Pathologies

#2,458 in Popular Psychology Pathologies

Mark Graban is a seasoned consultant and change agent with a background in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan Leaders for Global Operations Program (previously known as Leaders for Manufacturing). Mark has worked in the automotive (General Motors), PC (Dell), and industrial products industries (Honeywell). Mark was certified as a "Lean Expert" at Honeywell (Lean Black Belt).

Mark Graban explains why and how Lean can be used to improve safety, quality, and efficiency in a healthcare setting, drawing on his years of experience working with hospitals. He explains how Lean manufacturing staples such as Value Stream Mapping and process observation can help hospital personnel identify and eliminate waste in their own processes, effectively preventing delays for patients, reducing wasted motion for caregivers, and improving the quality of care.

Graban also discusses how Standardized Work and error-proofing can help to prevent common hospital errors, as well as root cause problem-solving and daily improvement processes that can engage all personnel in systemic improvement. Lean Hospitals is a one-of-a-kind guide for healthcare professionals that clearly outlines the steps they can take to begin the proactive process of Lean implementation.

Author: Mark Graban

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1420083805

Ratings: 4.3 out of 5 stars (from 36 reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #2,131,448 in Books

#849 in Hospital Administration (Books)

#2,746 in Health Care Delivery (Books)

#3,046 in Social Services & Welfare (Books)