Just using a checklist requires [doctors] to embrace different values from ones we've had, like humility, discipline, teamwork.

I think the extreme complexity of medicine has become more than an individual clinician can handle. But not more than teams of clinicians can handle.

Life is choices, and they are relentless. No sooner have you made one choice than another is upon you.

In psychology, there's something called the broken-leg problem. A statistical formula may be highly successful in predicting whether or not a person will go to a movie in the next week. But someone who knows that this person is laid up with a broken leg will beat the formula. No formula can take into account the infinite range of such exceptional events.

The big thing that's happened is, in the time since the Affordable Care Act has been going on, our medical science has been advancing. We have now genomic data. We have the power of big data about what your living patterns are, what's happening in your body. Even your smartphone can collect data about your walking or your pulse or other things that could be incredibly meaningful in being able to predict whether you have disease coming in the future and help avert those problems.

The battle of being mortal is the battle to maintain the integrity of one's life.

If the conversation people think is coming is the 'death panel' conversation, that's a total failure.