Samer Nashef has always been fascinated by the power of numbers to foster transparency in medicine. As a young surgeon, he combed
exhaustively through the paper filing systems of his hospital to show that his colleagues had the worst patient outcomes for aorta
surgery in the hospital. He was blacklisted from regional jobs, but it was just the beginning.
Measurements of risk have become increasingly sophisticated in recent decades, and these have revolutionized responsibility in hospital management as well as medicine.
But this book is for patients. Cardiac surgery has never been safer, says Nashef, but he wrote this book to tell you what you need to ask: has your surgeon recently got divorced? Is he about to go on holiday? Did her patient this morning live or die?
The answers indicate how likely your surgeon will be to take risks
when it’s your turn. A readable and generous book.
