Two new books by physician-writers

Health care professionals (e.g., CME professionals) might be interested in two new books authored by physicians. They are "Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance" by Atul Gawande and "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman. From the Washington Post article:

The authors' hopes for medical practice based on greater self-scrutiny will be a tall task as well. We live in an era of evidence-based medicine, in which population-based studies, Bayesian analysis and clinical guidelines increasingly dictate medical care. Both authors bemoan this development insofar as it makes physicians into technicians. Doctors, Gawande writes, need to stop to "wonder" and reconsider the paths they have taken. Groopman's best physicians arrive at judgments by assessing not only their patients' complaints but their characters and by paying attention to their own emotional responses to patients.

Reflection is a good thing and part of the improvement process. Click here to read the entire article.