Gawande launches think tank to solve end of life issues

Dr. Atul Gawande, a surgeon who's been named one of the world?s most influential thinker, is known for mapping simple solutions for some of health care?s most intractable problems. Until now, he?s been leading research projects in scattered places. Now his work has a centralized home?in Ariadne Labs. Now Gawande is expanding his focus from surgery to two other big healthcare moments: childbirth and death."We think in the course of a person?s life, that you will turn to the health system for a few high risk, high failure moments, and also some of the highest cost moments in that system. Childbirth. Surgery. The average American has 7 operations in their lifetime, all the way to the end of life."