Light Reading



The Pilot's Wife - how mistakes can save lives The Pilot's Wife - how mistakes can save lives After the death of his wife following a minor operation, airline pilot Martin Bromiley set out to change the way medicine is practised in the UK – by using his knowledge of plane crashes.
Red Gold - the epic story of blood Red Gold - the epic story of blood This site delves into the facts and myths about human blood and its impact on everything from religion and medicine to commerce and popular culture throughout history, as well as the ways in which we have understood and misunderstood the substance so crucial to our world.
Regrettably, PBS no longer support this website so this link takes you to the Wayback Machine's copy. Some audiovisual material may not have been archived.
 
Cowboys and Pit crews
Harvard medical school commencement address, 2011
Cowboys and Pit crews

Atul Gawande became a staff writer at The New Yorker in 1998. Also a surgeon, he completed his surgical residency at Brigham and Women�s Hospital, Boston, in 2003, and joined the faculty as a general and endocrine surgeon. He is also an associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, an associate professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the associate director of the B.W.H. Center for Surgery and Public Health.

Here are a couple of his articles from the New Yorker. They make good reading and are just as pertinent to us as they are to Americans.
The Checklist
If something so simple can transform intensive care, what else can it do?
Drawing of an ICU
Less is more Drawing of an ICU What is patient blood management for surgery? It's having surgery using blood products only when absolutely necessary, and there is growing evidence that this approach improves patient outcomes.