Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance

In Chapter 4, Gawande focuses on the theme of the book’s second section: doing right. He begins by examining medical etiquette, admitting, “When I started in my surgical practice, I was not at all clear what my etiquette of examination should be” (74). In particular, Gawande discusses the etiquette that male doctors should have toward female patients. Interactions between these two groups can be awkward due to the nature of certain medical examinations. They can also be uncomfortable because “[t]he new informality of medicine—with white coats disappearing and patient and doctor sometimes on a first name basis—has blurred the boundaries that once guided us” (80). The advent of doctor ratings across the Internet on their bedside manner has a serious effect on doctor's practice, and in their attempt to commune with their patients they have lost a sense of authority. 

In Chapter 5, Gawande discusses malpractice, a volatile topic in the medical industry. He begins with the story of Barbara Stanley, a woman who died of cancer after receiving conflicting diagnoses. Initially, Stanley was told that she had skin cancer and that she needed to have a cancerous nodule on her leg removed. Stanley sought a second opinion from a different doctor, who told her that she did not have skin cancer.