“... That may bring the biggest value in saving lives: by paring down and focusing not on saying ‘we’re going to solve all of it,’ but rather ‘let’s bring the basic accomplishments of the 19th century – safe anesthesia, and then infection reduction – to our patients around the world’... But how can we do it?”
The recorded words of surgeon and author Dr. Atul Gawande settled over the assembled crowd. The medical students, anesthesiolo-gists, surgeons and nurses gathered had all made the journey to the Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater in the heart of Philadelphia’s Center City district. The purpose was a special screening of the award-winning documentary “The Checklist Effect.”
The film had been commissioned by the Lifebox Foundation several years earlier. Lifebox is an international NGO and the only such organization focused solely on improving surgical care around the globe. The charitable organization was formed in 2011...
