Dr. Atul Gawande on overutilization, quality and healthcare reform
Posted Jul 01 2009 4:50pm
We sat down with Dr. Atul Gawande, a staff member of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the New Yorker magazine. His recent article, “ The Cost Conundrum,” points to McAllen, Texas, a town with the lowest household income in the country, yet with some of the highest healthcare costs. Dr. Gawande uses McAllen to better understand why American healthcare costs are so varied among different regions, as found in the Dartmouth Atlas data. While many suspect it’s due to such factors as better medical equipment or a sicker population, Dr. Gawande shows that overutilization is a key driver of our costs.
In this six-and-a-half minute interview, Dr. Gawande discusses how “more” doesn’t mean “better” in healthcare. We have a system that pushes healthcare professionals in multiple ways to do more, even when that may not be the right thing.
We sat down with Dr. Atul Gawande, a staff member of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and the New Yorker magazine. His recent article, “ The Cost Conundrum,” points to McAllen, Texas, a town with the lowest household income in the country, yet with some of the highest healthcare costs. Dr. Gawande uses McAllen to better understand why American healthcare costs are so varied among different regions, as found in the Dartmouth Atlas data. While many suspect it’s due to such factors as better medical equipment or a sicker population, Dr. Gawande shows that overutilization is a key driver of our costs.
In this six-and-a-half minute interview, Dr. Gawande discusses how “more” doesn’t mean “better” in healthcare. We have a system that pushes healthcare professionals in multiple ways to do more, even when that may not be the right thing.
Watch the video or read the interview transcript.