full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Atul Gawande: How do we heal medicine?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


In the last few years we realized we were in the dpeeest crisis of medicine's existence due to something you don't normally think about when you're a doctor concerned with how you do good for people, which is the cost of htlaeh care. There's not a country in the world that now is not asking whether we can afford what doctors do. The political fghit that we've developed has become one around whether it's the government that's the problem or is it insurance companies that are the poelbrm. And the answer is yes and no; it's deeper than all of that.

The cause of our troubles is actually the complexity that science has given us. And in oderr to understand this, I'm going to take you back a couple of generations. I want to take you back to a time when Lewis tmohas was wiinrtg in his book, "The Youngest Science." Lewis Thomas was a physician-writer, one of my favorite writers. And he wrote this book to eiplaxn, among other things, what it was like to be a mcieadl intern at the Boston City Hospital in the pre-penicillin year of 1937. It was a time when medicine was chaep and very ineffective. If you were in a hospital, he said, it was going to do you good only because it offered you some warmth, some food, shelter, and maybe the caring attention of a nusre. Doctors and medicine made no difference at all. That didn't seem to prevent the doctors from being frantically busy in their days, as he explained.

Open Cloze


In the last few years we realized we were in the _______ crisis of medicine's existence due to something you don't normally think about when you're a doctor concerned with how you do good for people, which is the cost of ______ care. There's not a country in the world that now is not asking whether we can afford what doctors do. The political _____ that we've developed has become one around whether it's the government that's the problem or is it insurance companies that are the _______. And the answer is yes and no; it's deeper than all of that.

The cause of our troubles is actually the complexity that science has given us. And in _____ to understand this, I'm going to take you back a couple of generations. I want to take you back to a time when Lewis ______ was _______ in his book, "The Youngest Science." Lewis Thomas was a physician-writer, one of my favorite writers. And he wrote this book to _______, among other things, what it was like to be a _______ intern at the Boston City Hospital in the pre-penicillin year of 1937. It was a time when medicine was _____ and very ineffective. If you were in a hospital, he said, it was going to do you good only because it offered you some warmth, some food, shelter, and maybe the caring attention of a _____. Doctors and medicine made no difference at all. That didn't seem to prevent the doctors from being frantically busy in their days, as he explained.

Solution


  1. problem
  2. writing
  3. deepest
  4. medical
  5. health
  6. fight
  7. order
  8. thomas
  9. cheap
  10. explain
  11. nurse

Original Text


In the last few years we realized we were in the deepest crisis of medicine's existence due to something you don't normally think about when you're a doctor concerned with how you do good for people, which is the cost of health care. There's not a country in the world that now is not asking whether we can afford what doctors do. The political fight that we've developed has become one around whether it's the government that's the problem or is it insurance companies that are the problem. And the answer is yes and no; it's deeper than all of that.

The cause of our troubles is actually the complexity that science has given us. And in order to understand this, I'm going to take you back a couple of generations. I want to take you back to a time when Lewis Thomas was writing in his book, "The Youngest Science." Lewis Thomas was a physician-writer, one of my favorite writers. And he wrote this book to explain, among other things, what it was like to be a medical intern at the Boston City Hospital in the pre-penicillin year of 1937. It was a time when medicine was cheap and very ineffective. If you were in a hospital, he said, it was going to do you good only because it offered you some warmth, some food, shelter, and maybe the caring attention of a nurse. Doctors and medicine made no difference at all. That didn't seem to prevent the doctors from being frantically busy in their days, as he explained.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
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skill number 3
ct scans 3
lewis thomas 2
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inappropriate care 2
expensive care 2
pause points 2
rates fell 2
making systems 2
great task 2


Important Words


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  25. due
  26. existence
  27. explain
  28. explained
  29. favorite
  30. fight
  31. food
  32. frantically
  33. generations
  34. good
  35. government
  36. health
  37. hospital
  38. ineffective
  39. insurance
  40. intern
  41. lewis
  42. medical
  43. medicine
  44. nurse
  45. offered
  46. order
  47. people
  48. political
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  50. problem
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  54. thomas
  55. time
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  57. understand
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  63. year
  64. years
  65. youngest