Physician-writers have only recently detailed the deficiencies of medicine to the public. For most of the 20th century, doctors urged one another to conceal medical errors, largely because they feared lawsuits. But as a result of a series of research scandals in the 1970s, charges of paternalism and spiraling health care costs, medicine could no longer remain insular. Greater scrutiny of what doctors do came from journalists, bioethicists, insurers and economists — and, eventually, from doctors themselves.
The Washington Post has published an article reviewing two recent books, written by doctors about doctors. The first book, “How Doctors Think” by Jerome Groopman was mentioned in this blog just days ago. The second book, “Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance” by Atul Gawande, a general surgeon at Harvard Medical School.
Read the Washington Post article here.