Dr. Gawande: Teams at heart of better care  05/12/2014 10:32 AM
02/15/2015 11:19 AM  Dr. Atul Gawande received widespread
attention after The New Yorker published his 2009 article about
two Texas towns that were starkly different from each other in
heath care costs and the culture of their medical communities.
In one, a culture of profit-making led doctors to over-treat
patients. In the other, costs were significantly lower because
the doctors worked more as teams when treating a patient and
focused more on quality of care than money.  The clarity with
which Gawande described the issues involved has made the article
almost required reading for anyone working to solve the nation’s
health care problems.  Gawande, an associate professor at the
Harvard University medical and public health schools and
director of the World Health Organization’s program to reduce
surgical deaths, was interviewed briefly after his UNC-Chapel
Hill commencement address on Sunday. The interview has been
edited for clarity and length.