The Checklist Manifesto

I really enjoy Atul Gawande's writing, and The Checklist Manifesto did not disappoint. This book differs from his previous ones Complications and Better because it is not simply a collection of interesting stories and topics. Instead, it has a clear thesis promoting the use of the checklist. It reminds me of the previous books I reviewed, Internal Bleeding by Robert Wachter, another patient safety advocate. In this book, Gawande spreads his survey widely, looking at how top restaurants are run, how skyscrapers are built, and how international medicine is practiced. The timeliness of his book is amazing in that he describes very current events and how they played out.

His writing style is clear, engaging, cohesive, and precise. He incorporates both the dramatic narrative we've come to enjoy and the science; he describes his clinical research with the WHO and the study design in a fashion far more convincing and interesting than the medical journal article it produced. His writing is accessible to anyone, not just health care professionals.

The argument is not particularly new, innovative, or brilliant, but the way he puts it together is persuasive. He tells us what we already know - medicine is hard. It's complicated and complex, much like flying an airplane. Checklists allow a basic framework that demonstrably improves outcomes. Communication between team members is central to taking care of a patient. All of these concepts are simple, yet their implementation in modern medicine is slow and incomplete. The Checklist Manifesto explores why and how things should change.

This New York Times Bestseller and Amazon Best Book of the Month is a must-read for anyone interested in health policy and health outcomes, and it is a highly recommended read for everyone else. It certainly has changed the way I view the world. Those who know me know that I love lists; ever since college, I've made a checklist of things to do pretty much every day (and I pretty much never accomplish all the things on my list). The checklist works; I'm sold on the idea.

Image shown under Fair Use, from gawande.com