Expertise Is The Mantra Of Modern Medicine.

Culture Matters. Of Course, If Physicians Are Rewarded Or Penalized For Their Service And Results, The Culture Will Change. But The Key Values We Doctors Are Being Pressed To Embrace Are Humility, Teamwork, And Discipline.

In Many Ways, The Effort To Study Philosophy Was My Rebellion Away From Medicine. I'm The Son Of Two Indian Immigrant Physicians, So The Natural Path For Me Would Have Been To Become A Doctor. I Ended Up Doing The Master's Degree At Oxford In Politics, Philosophy, And Economics While Already Having A Seat In Medical School. I Was Keeping That As My Escape Hatch. But My Hope Was That I Might Become A Philosopher Or Something Else Entirely.

A Failure Often Does Not Have To Be A Failure At All. However, You Have To Be Ready For It-will You Admit When Things Go Wrong? Will You Take Steps To Set Them Right?-because The Difference Between Triumph And Defeat, You'll Find, Isn't About Willingness To Take Risks. It's About Mastery Of Rescue.

I Talked To Over Two Hundred Patients And Family Members About Their Experiences With Aging, Serious Illnesses, And The Big Unfixables. But I Also Spoke With Scores Of Physicians, And Especially Geriatricians, Palliative Care Doctors, Hospice Nurses, And Nursing Home Workers. The Biggest Thing I Found Was That When These Clinicians Were At Their Best, They Were Recognizing That People Had Priorities Besides Merely Living Longer. The Most Important And Reliable Way That We Can Understand What People's Priorities Are, Besides Just Living Longer, Is To Simply Ask. And We Don't Ask.

In Every Industrialized Nation, The Movement To Reform Health Care Has Begun With Stories About Cruelty.