Book Club Pick: Marty Makary: What Hospitals Don’t Tell You—But Should

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As a surgeon, Dr. Marty Makary can testify to the amazing power of modern medicine. But he’s also been witness to a medical culture that routinely leaves surgical sponges inside patients, amputates the wrong limbs, and overdoses children because of sloppy handwriting. Over the last 10 years, says the author of Unaccountable, medical error rates and costs have not come down, despite scientific progress and efforts to curb expenses. Even worse, doctors and hospitals are unaccountable, and the lack of transparency leaves bad outliers unchecked. But, he says, if patients knew what healthcare workers know, they could make informed choices—plus, accountability would expose dangerous doctors, reward good performance, and force positive change using the power of the free market. Presented as part of the Town Hall Civic series, with University Book Store. Series supported by The Boeing Company, the RealNetworks Foundation, and the True/Brown Foundation.

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Makary’s bio