> Skip to content
[]
  • Published: 17 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781473593121
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $36.99

Minute Six

How High-Performance Teams Navigate the Unknown




A visceral narrative investigation of the quest for 'zero harm' by one of the UK's most renowned frontline doctors and podcast stars

Professor Kevin Fong was flying with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, making split-second, life-or-death decisions in the most extreme circumstances. Then he was seconded to the NHS's Covid-19 Strategy Unit, tasked with leading the fight against pandemic. In this gripping blend of memoir and reportage, he confronts a disturbing truth: the quest for 'zero harm' can prevent the saving of lives.

Telling stories of astonishing skill and catastrophic error across medicine, aviation and space-flight, and reflecting on his own dramatic experiences as well as those of war medics, pilots and surgeons, Fong offers a visceral journey and a major new argument about the balance of safety and risk in the 21st century.

  • Published: 17 September 2026
  • ISBN: 9781473593121
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: Audio Download
  • RRP: $36.99

About the author

Kevin Fong

Kevin Fong (OBE) is a medical doctor specialising in anaesthesia and intensive-care medicine and is departmental lead for major-incident planning at UCL Hospitals. He also flies as a doctor with a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service, has worked with NASA’s human spaceflight programme and was the writer and presenter of the number-one hit podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon. In 2020 he was seconded as National Clinical Adviser to NHS England's Covid-19 Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response Team. He holds degrees in astrophysics, medicine and engineering.

Also by Kevin Fong

See all

Praise for Minute Six

Kevin Fong understands something every soldier eventually learns: plans are temporary, uncertainty is permanent, and survival depends on the quality of the team beside you. Minute Six is one of the clearest and most human examinations I’ve read of how people and organizations adapt under pressure when the stakes are highest. This book belongs on the shelf of every leader responsible for others in uncertain environments

General Stanley McChrystal

Minute Six captures the very essence of what it means to operate at the edge of chaos and create order from uncertainty. For anyone seeking to understand how high-performance teams truly navigate uncertainty – whether in space, healthcare, or any complex system – this book is an invaluable guide and a powerful testament to the human spirit

Tim Peake