Atul Gawande

The question we have to ask ourselves within society, is whether capital punishment accomplishes anything and whether “a society in which the government actively subverts core ethical principles of medical practice is patently worse off for it” (Gawande, When law, 2006, 1221). Furthermore, we must question how just is physician participation in capital punishment if the physicians who participate choose to do so act in secrecy and how just is a punishment in which the State calls upon another…

Since the Africans were brought to this country, they have faced oppression and isolation by white Americans. W.E.B. Du Bois wrote a memoir titled The Souls of Black Folk to represent his concerns about the oppression of African Americans and their education. This book provides insight to African Americans’ culture, values and religion and in providing insight to those aspects, he also takes the time to speak about the color-line. The color-line or as he often refers, “the Veil” is an imaginary…

My grandfather died of Alzheimer's when I was young. He slowly lost his ability to read, write, remember and finally to eat. He had always had that sort of “tough guy” attitude. He thought that you were supposed to sweat through the pain. However, I’m not sure that this was the kind of pain he wanted to suffer through. As he slowly lost his mind he never really talked about how he was feeling. However, he seemed to clearly be distressed. Even though I was young, I still think about it quite…

The draft felt frigid. She could hear children playing with blocks in the corner. Scanning the room, she inspected everyone, questioning the purpose of each person's visit. An older man sitting across from her sneezed, followed by a loud cough. She glanced over her shoulder, her mother distracted herself with a magazine. "Girisha", someone called out! She looked up to discover an impatient receptionist looking towards them. Along with her mother, she followed the nurse into another room…

Stemming from my deep-rooted desire to aid humanity, medicine is the perfect blend of emotion and academia, combining what it means to be human with the intellectual and social skills needed to build relationships with patients and colleagues alike. Through a range of work placements, I learnt how to approach life as a doctor. At a lead clinical neuromodulator centre at Guys’ & St Thomas’ Hospital, it has become clear to me that humanity’s view of medicine is the antithesis to reality. What…

ABSTRACT Medical negligence is a combination of two words. The second word solely describes the meaning, though the meaning of negligence has not been described in a proper way but it is an act recklessly done by a person resulting in foreseeable damages to the other. Negligence is an offense under tort, IPC, Indian Contracts Act, Consumer Protection Act and many more. Medical Negligence basically is the misconduct by a medical practitioner or doctor by not providing enough care resulting in…

and obstruction of growth. To illustrate the contrast of positive thinking that results from ability to change, and the negative thinking that is caused by the inability to wander from expectations and previous theories we turn to several readings: Atul Gewande’s “Suggestions for Becoming a Positive Deviant”, which exemplifies positive thinking, and examples of negative thinking, the academic life of N.S. Shaler, as explained in Stephan Jay Gould’s “In A Jumbled…

Through my studies of BH 1002 module in UCC I have observed many concepts that I believe will undoubtedly be pivotal to my role as a doctor in the future. Three concepts that I am certain will play a vital role in this are the Biopsychosocial model, an insight as to how we can mitigate medical errors and medical ethics in our everyday lives as medical physicians. The biopsychosocial model shows that it is not only biological, but also psychological, and social factors are involved in the causes…

IntArguments While a mandatory reporting system is currently implemented in twenty-seven states, it is essential that this is expanded to all fifty states of the United States as a nationwide collaboration between health organizations (Hanlon et al., 2015). Patients have a right to be informed of all information concerning their health such as medications administered, names of those involved, possible outcomes and risks as well as procedure details including any errors, whether intentional or…

PROBLEM Medical peer review is not a new concept. In Ethics of the Physician, Syrian doctor, Ishap bin Ali Al Raha, (854-931) recommended that physicians keep excellent records such that if a patient died or was cured, the notes could be examined by local medical counsel to determine if the care had been appropriate. Throughout much of modern medicine, the predominant process of peer review was the audit. Quality Assurance became formalized in 1979, the chief goal being to determine if the…