Thursday, July 1, 2010

Quotation of the day for July 1, 2010

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Quotation of the Day for July 1, 2010



"Half a century ago, medicine was neither costly nor effective. Since then, however, science has combatted our ignorance. It has enumerated and identified, according to the international disease-classification system, more than 13,600 diagnoses--13,600 different ways our bodies can fail. And for each one we've discovered beneficial remedies--remedies that can reduce suffering, extend lives, and sometimes stop a disease altogether. But those remedies now include more than six thousand drugs and four thousand medical and surgical procedures. Our job in medicine is to make sure that all of this capability is deployed, town by town, in the right way at the right time, without harm or waste of resources, for every person alive. And we're struggling. There is no industry in the world with 13,600 different service lines to deliver."

- Atul Gawande, in the 2010 commencement speech at Stanford University School of Medicine.

[http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/06/gawande-stanford-speech.html]

Submitted by: Bob Bruhin
Jun. 21, 2010

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