Cardiac surgeons performing Norwood operations (a difficult pediatric surgery) show a clear learning curve: mortality rates at high-volume centers (400+ cases/year) are about one-quarter the rates at low-volume centers (under 150 cases/year), demonstrating the critical importance of volume for surgical mastery.

factualpending

Speaker

Malcolm Gladwell

Evidence Quote

if you're under like 150 cases a year uh your mortality rate is really high...but once you get to about 400 a year the mortality rate comes down dramatically by you know it's a quarter of what it would be uh otherwise

Source

A Perspective with Malcolm GladwellGoogle Zeitgeist
Created: 8/13/2026, 7:47:10 AM

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