The Checklist Manifesto

Surgeon and writer Atul Gawande asks why skilled professionals still make avoidable mistakes, and finds an answer in the checklist. He traces how the tool grew out of aviation and is used in skyscraper construction, then follows it into medicine through the Michigan Keystone Project, where checklists cut central line infections, and his own work with the World Health Organization on a surgical safety checklist. The book argues that in complex, high-stakes work, a short list of critical steps frees experts to use their judgment where it counts.