Can Atul Gawande Fix Healthcare? Maybe.

A physician and journalist probably isn’t who you thought business titans Bezos, Buffet, and Dimon would choose to lead their effort to disrupt healthcare, but Atul Gawande still might make a big impact.

The selection of Atul Gawande, MD, to be the CEO of Amazon’s joint venture with JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway is at once surprising and groundbreaking.

We should all be heartened that someone willing to try bold ideas is getting the chance to hack away at healthcare’s problems and push forward the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s so-called triple aim: improving the patient experience, the health of populations, and the per-capita cost of care.

In announcing the effort at the end of January, the three tycoons...