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Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon

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Re: Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon

#141

Post by kilotaras »

zrobotics wrote: post #139
verisimilitude wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, I think Gawande _wrote_ "The Checklist Manifesto"!

After having worked with some A&Ps (aircraft mechanics) I was shocked that surgeons didn't operate with checklists. Doesn't matter how skilled you are, mistakes happen, especially when you are in a hurry. Aircraft mechanics also typically 'shadow' their toolboxes, which is where every drawer has individual cutouts for each tool to make it easy to verify that all tools are back in their place. And apparently instrumen…

> Why are aircraft mechanics taking better precautions against this type of low hanging fruit than surgeons, aside from ego?

Nothing new under the sun. A guy who found that doctors should wash hands between autopsies and deliveries was ostracized by colleagues and died in asylum. [1]

[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/12/3756639...

Re: Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon

#142

Post by prepend »

bookofjoe wrote: post #132
leroy_masochist wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough, he's a popularizer and also a top-tier surgeon. I agree with parent comment -- there is a difference between being the person/people who came up with brilliant ideas and being the person who brought them to the masses in a pithy, cogent and engaging manner. One might even make the argument that the latter task is relatively more important than the former for people in high-visibility figurehead type posi…

>and also a top-tier surgeon. The only people who can differentiate between 1)surgeons who are expert in the O.R. whose patients do well in the long run and 2)those whose reputations exceed their abilities and results are anesthesiologists. Trust me, I was one for 38 years, at UCLA, the University of Virginia, and in private hospitals. I will never forget the time a world-renowned cardiac surgeon at UCLA at the heigh…

So what’s your point? Should no one try to differentiate good surgeons or bad unless they are their peer for years?

There’s lots of crappy programmers with good reputations too. But it’s a weird reply to “he’s a top tier surgeon” that you say it’s unknowable.

I’m sure you’re right, I’m not a surgeon so I have no idea how to evaluate a good surgeon, but there must be some way to qualify the poor ones from the great ones.

Your anecdote is a great example of high reputation, low skill. But is that the only instance. Is it 10%? Are most board certified, practice for 20 years surgeons good or bad? What’s the actionable intelligence, but it seems like the conversation ends with “it’s unknowable.”

I am sort of aware of quality measurement, but not a healthcare practitioner, but I’ve noticed this comment from lots of docs that the only way to know if medicine is good or bad is to have a doctor review it.

Re: Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon

#143

Post by anitil »

projectramo wrote: post #42

When I read the checklist manifesto I thought it was going to change my life. It didn't because I didn't put it into effect. Then I thought it would be great if software did the work for me, including communal checklists that people can share with me. (Got a new car, here is a checklist template. Got a new house? Here is the checklist template? Is it an investment property, use this checklist. Oh, that is good for Fl…

I can recommend Wunderlist, it's quite good for having shared lists etc.

Of course, there's the usual issue of managing the 'chattiness' of the app, but I use it instead of a calendar.

Re: Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon

#144

Post by eldavido »

aaavl2821 wrote: post #123
sonnyblarney wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but you still need someone with startupy hustle, and with a CEO mindset, as well as a knack for ops. In light of this, I'm truly perplexed by this choice. This is not a 'resarch organization' or something like 'doctors without borders' for whom this guy would be a great choice. Living outside of 'revenue' and 'products/services' all of one's career makes this a difficult choice.

I think one of the reasons tech startups haven't made a bigger dent in healthcare / biotech is bc they overweight startup hustle and underweight experience and domain expertise. Better to walk towards the right target than run really fast to the wrong one, and in fields like healthcare you can't pivot as quickly once you realize you're going in the wrong direction Basically all successful biotech CEOs are old, former…

I agree and to refine a bit, I think it depends on the type of business.

The Internet was wide open 10-15 years ago. Today, not so much.

A CEO of anything in healthcare, especially something like this, had better have a lot of domain expertise.

Re: Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon

#145

Post by leroy_masochist »

bookofjoe wrote: post #132
leroy_masochist wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough, he's a popularizer and also a top-tier surgeon. I agree with parent comment -- there is a difference between being the person/people who came up with brilliant ideas and being the person who brought them to the masses in a pithy, cogent and engaging manner. One might even make the argument that the latter task is relatively more important than the former for people in high-visibility figurehead type posi…

>and also a top-tier surgeon. The only people who can differentiate between 1)surgeons who are expert in the O.R. whose patients do well in the long run and 2)those whose reputations exceed their abilities and results are anesthesiologists. Trust me, I was one for 38 years, at UCLA, the University of Virginia, and in private hospitals. I will never forget the time a world-renowned cardiac surgeon at UCLA at the heigh…

I see your point, but I'm pretty sure he's at least pretty good, given that he has been promoted into a supervisory role by other surgeons who are familiar with how he does surgery.

Re: Surgeon Atul Gawande selected as CEO of new health care company from Amazon

#146

Post by acangiano »

projectramo wrote: post #118
acangiano wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Process Street?

Just looked it up. It looks interesting for a company that wants to run a process. I was thinking more for individuals, and note that the key is having people remember things you may not. For example, if the list has something like check your roof for leaks if its been 15 years or something you may not think of.

It's also something I always wanted after reading that book.
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