Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

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On Breakthrough vs. Follow-Through Innovation

Mon, September 13, 2021
Dinner Program
Atul Gawande

We have had a century of scientific investment in breakthrough innovation that has transformed the potential of lives and society. But it has not been matched by investment in follow-through innovation to deliver these breakthroughs widely. Atul Gawande, M.D., M.P.H, practicing surgeon, writer, and public health leader, believes that the science and study of systems, however, is producing solutions demonstrating massive potential to save lives and reduce suffering.   

As one of CMC’s 75th Anniversary Distinguished Speakers, Dr. Gawande will highlight issues in “Science and Policy,” one of the three academic collaboration themes of our special 75th Anniversary celebration.

Atul Gawande, M.D., M.P.H., is a surgeon, writer, and public health leader. He is a practicing endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is founder and chair of Ariadne Labs, a joint center for health systems innovation, and of Lifebox, a nonprofit organization making surgery safer globally. He is also co-founder of CIC Health, which operates COVID-19 testing and vaccination nationally, and served as a member of the Biden transition COVID-19 Advisory Board. Recently, he was nominated by President Biden to lead Global Health, including COVID, at USAID.

In addition, Gawande has been a staff writer for The New Yorker magazine since 1998 and written four New York Times best-selling books: "Complications," "Better," "The Checklist Manifesto," and "Being Mortal." He is the winner of two National Magazine Awards, AcademyHealth’s Impact Award for highest research impact on healthcare, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Award for writing about science.

Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum

Claremont McKenna College
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