The Velluvial Matrix

I have this image of Indian doctors -- by which I mean people of Indian, by which I mean India, descent who live in the United States and practice medicine -- as being geeks. Supercilious geeks. I'm not sure where I got that image. I can actually only remember meeting two or three people who fit that Indian Doctor mold, and while one was a geek, two weren't. But somehow, the image lives on. Want to go to a doctor? Skip the Indian one -- they're arrogant geeks.

Except for Atul Gawande. He's a geek, but he's a literate one. I'll read almost anything he choose to write. He writes fluidly, intelligently, well.

There can be rocky bits, I know. Like the book where he talked about the need for checklists in medicine. It's an intriguing concept, but I had the misfortune to listen to it on an MP3 player while I was at the gym. I cut that session on the elliptical short, because listening to someone go into detail about nasty things that can happen in medicine -- they flew her to the trauma center, where they cracked the chest of this eight year old girl, using a power saw to cut down the middle, so that they could reach inside and palpate her heart -- I did not enjoy the experience, and I couldn't skip past it without going to the whole next section. Grisly imagery.

But as a rule, he's well worth the time. Even when he's using phrases like the velluvial matrix - you've heard of it, I'm sure -- I like him.