知識的龐大與複雜，已超過個人能力所及，專業分工的細膩，更超乎你我的想像。葛文德醫生深入醫療、航空、金融及建築各領域取經，發現一個及早攔截錯誤、提高工作效率的祕密，只要1頁，5 ~ 9個關鍵項目，60 ~ 90秒，就能小兵立大功。
　　在現今世界，我們已累積了很多技能知識（know-how），然而可以避免的錯誤依然層出不窮。不管是醫療、施政、法律、金融，幾乎在每一個專業領域，你都可以看到令人洩氣的疏失。原因很簡單：知識的龐大與複雜已超過個人能力所及，換言之知識與實踐出現落差。儘管訓練時間再長、再嚴格，在技術上精益求精，甚至運用最先進的科技，也不能保證我們不會一錯再錯。
　　作者葛文德深入各個領域取經，包括建築界、航空界、餐飲界、基金投資界等，發現一個減少疏失、提高工作效率與團隊精神的好方法，也就是「檢查表」。他把這些見聞融合自己的經驗，設計出一張可在九十秒內完成的手術安全檢查表，並與世界衛生組織合作執行這個研究計劃，在全世界八個醫學中心試驗，結果大幅降低手術的死亡率與併發症。
　　作者一方面提出檢查表的理念，也讓我們看到檢查表在實際運用時，如何以簡馭繁，避免疏失，讓人臨危不亂，提高工作效率。
　　A New York Times Bestseller
　　In his latest bestseller, Atul Gawande shows what the simple idea of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it.
　　The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry—in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people—consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference.
　　Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as “the biggest clinical invention in thirty years” (The Independent).
　　本書中譯版《檢查表：不犯錯的祕密武器》由天下文化出版。
作者簡介
葛文德　Atul Gawande
　　一九六五年生，哈佛醫學院畢業，波士頓布萊根婦女醫院（Brigham and Women’s Hospital）一般外科醫師，《紐約客》主筆，哈佛大學衛生政策與管理學系助理教授，也是世界衛生組織（WHO）手術安全檢查表研究計劃負責人。作品曾兩度入選美國年度最佳科學散文。著有《一位外科醫師的修煉》與《開刀房裡的沈思》（天下文化出版）。
　　Atul Gawande is the author of Better and Complications. He is also a MacArthur Fellow, a general surgeon at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. He lives with his wife and three children in Newton, Massachusetts.