Analysis Of The Bell Curve By Atul Gawande

The Bell Curve is a well written essay by Dr. Atul Gawande in relation to patients and their diseases, the treatment they do or don’t receive, and what happens when they find out about how good their doctors really are. The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital thought they were doing everything they could to treat patients with cystic fibrosis, by following regular practices for that particular disease. Everyone received the same treatment, medication, therapy twice a day etc. but data showed that they were at best an average program. Don Berwick had this idea that, “openness would drive improvement, if simply through embarrassment” (Gawande). If hospitals and doctors allowed their information to be public to everyone, would it change how they run …show more content…
Most physicians think they are doing the best job and that their hospital should be included in the upper rankings. When this assumption is backed up by actual results, they show that it is harder to be at the high end of the bell curve. This article addresses a few specific patients and their life with cystic fibrosis. With roughly a thousand children in America being diagnosed each year; technology, medicine and the understanding of CF, has slowly brought their life expectancy from three to forty-seven years in a matter of about forty years. Throughout the article Gawande addresses the importance of patient care beyond medicine in relation to the importance of improving physician performance. Berwick believes that lessons are hidden, but if the time is taken, they can be uncovered. One of the lessons is that science and skill are only the base of a doctor’s ability and that if they go beyond that they will be more successful. Comparing the Cincinnati and Minneapolis hospitals proves this, both have capable and trained doctors, but the Minneapolis hospital has better results because their doctors think beyond the basic care in which they are trained. With the overall process, specialization and experience in working with CF patients, the bell curve results should be more shifted toward the