The desire to do better is universal. Whatever we do, we are all faced with limited resources, we lack capabilities, we get tired. But there is no other area in which the quality of work is as important as in medicine: after all, a human life depends on every doctor’s decision. In this book, Atul Gawande explains how doctors fight to keep the gap between best intentions and actual achievement as small as possible. Describing a military field hospital in Iraq, a maternity ward in Boston, or a polio vaccination in India, Gawande shows the difficulties that must be overcome in solving sometimes seemingly impossible tasks. Equally meticulous, the author examines routine issues such as handwashing and pay systems, and the most sensitive topics: from the ethical dilemma facing doctors involved in the execution of a death sentence to medical errors and medical malpractice trials. And everything that Gawande writes about is subordinated to the search for an answer to the main question: how can one achieve not just good, but better results in this incredibly necessary and responsible profession?