Books Written by Atul Gawande

Atul Gawande has written four books: Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science (2002), Better: A Surgeon’s Notes on Performance (2007), The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right (2009), and Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End (2014).

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End is generally considered his best and most essential book, widely recommended even by readers who aren’t looking for medical writing specifically, for its honest treatment of aging and dying.

Atul Gawande has practiced general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for most of his career, alongside his writing and public health work. From 2022 to 2025 he served as the U.S. Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID.

The Checklist Manifesto (2009) argues that simple checklists, properly designed and used, can dramatically reduce the kind of preventable errors that occur under pressure in complex fields — not from lack of knowledge, but from skipped or forgotten steps. Gawande draws examples from aviation, construction, and surgery to make the case.

Atul Gawande (born November 5, 1965) is an American surgeon, writer, and public health researcher, born in New York and raised in Athens, Ohio, by parents who had immigrated from India, both also physicians. He practiced general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston for most of his career, wrote for The New Yorker for over two decades, and has held senior roles in both private industry and government, including CEO of the healthcare venture Haven and Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID.

Yes, Atul Gawande is married to Kathleen Hobson. They have three children and live in Newton, Massachusetts.

Atul Gawande is American, born in New York City. His parents, both physicians, immigrated to the United States from India.

Atul Gawande lives in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife, Kathleen Hobson, and their three children.

After serving as Assistant Administrator for Global Health at USAID from January 2022 to January 2025, Gawande returned to Brigham and Women’s Hospital as the John and Cyndy Fish Professor of Surgery and to Ariadne Labs as a Distinguished Professor in Residence. He is also reportedly working on a new book about the science of implementation and behavior change.

Haven was a healthcare venture jointly created by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase to explore ways to improve healthcare and reduce costs for their employees. Gawande served as its CEO from 2018 to 2020, then remained as executive chairman until the venture was dissolved in 2021.

“When Doctors Make Mistakes” is a 1999 New Yorker essay by Gawande, one of his earliest widely read pieces, arguing that medical errors are a systemic problem rather than simply a matter of individual bad doctors. It became a foundational piece for his thinking and helped establish the reporting style he later expanded into his first book, Complications (2002).