doodiiidoo
I will not deny being a medical show junkie. In fact, I will tell any one who’s willing to listen exactly what I thought of this week’s episode of House or Grey’s Anatomy. My daily rendezvous with House fans on livejournal allows me to say with confidence that I am not alone in my obsession. The fascination doesn’t just stop there. From House to Grey’s Anatomy, to ER, to Scrubs, and even the CSI franchise, television audiences around the world are captivated by shows about medicine and science. We may even occasionally find ourselves hoping to find (or be) Dr. House, Dr. McDreamy or Dr. Kovac in real life. We might even ask ourselves; can potential interns expect to have lives like the Seattle Grace surgical interns? And can we really learn medicine from just watching the shows?
Television networks are more concerned with the ratings than the accuracy of their shows. Let us be honest, a show that accurately documents medicine or real life medical personnel’s would not get over 15 million viewers every week - the Discovery Health Channel is not a part of the standard cable package for a reason. Not only does the network have to worry about getting the audiences to watch the series premiere, but the show has to continue to be appealing in order to have audiences tune in every week. The writers spice up the stories by weaving in inter-workplace relationships and present the viewers with extraordinary medical cases. Take Fox network’s “House” for example. Dr. House has treated patients with anything from acute intermittent porphyria to Wilson’s disease and somewhere in between, he diagnosed a boy and his father with leprosy. Many viewers do not realize how rare these conditions are and simply accept the fact that Dr. House’s reputation as the best diagnostician in New Jersey allows him to find an interesting case every week. In reality, conditions like leprosy occur very rarely in developed countries like Canada and the US. There were only 108 cases of leprosy in the US in 1999 and with medical advances and awareness, the occurrences has only decreased since then. (wikipedia.com) An average doctor in a hospital will not encounter Erdheim-Chester disease (2x17 All In) and the Bubonic plague (2x18 Sleeping Dogs Lie) in two consecutive weeks but on TV everything is possible.
Another misleading component of any medical show is the amount of medical jargons that the audience hears within an hour. The viewers are lead to believe that what is being shown and said on the shows are medically correct because actors are delivering complex medical terms that an average viewer do not understand. It might be surprising to many people to find out that the writers make mistakes almost every week. Websites like Politedissent.com contain articles written by real life medical doctors who analyze in detail how medically sound each week’s cases are. This is not to say that the medical cases are creations of the writers’ imaginations. Every medical show has at least one medical consultant who helps create the scripts with the writers. In the case of Grey’s Anatomy there is even a surgical nurse who helps guide the actors in how to properly handle the surgical equipment!
I have no doubt that there are also fans of medical shows who do not tune in every week for the shows’ scientific value but rather to find out whether if their favourite character will hook up with their secret (or not so secret) crush. Whether it is a scandalous affair or long unresolved sexual tension, romance is a big part of every television show. I can’t say for sure if love triangles actually happen to doctors as it does on Grey’s Anatomy but I do know that a sure way to find out is to study hard, go to medical school and experience everything for real.
Television networks are more concerned with the ratings than the accuracy of their shows. Let us be honest, a show that accurately documents medicine or real life medical personnel’s would not get over 15 million viewers every week - the Discovery Health Channel is not a part of the standard cable package for a reason. Not only does the network have to worry about getting the audiences to watch the series premiere, but the show has to continue to be appealing in order to have audiences tune in every week. The writers spice up the stories by weaving in inter-workplace relationships and present the viewers with extraordinary medical cases. Take Fox network’s “House” for example. Dr. House has treated patients with anything from acute intermittent porphyria to Wilson’s disease and somewhere in between, he diagnosed a boy and his father with leprosy. Many viewers do not realize how rare these conditions are and simply accept the fact that Dr. House’s reputation as the best diagnostician in New Jersey allows him to find an interesting case every week. In reality, conditions like leprosy occur very rarely in developed countries like Canada and the US. There were only 108 cases of leprosy in the US in 1999 and with medical advances and awareness, the occurrences has only decreased since then. (wikipedia.com) An average doctor in a hospital will not encounter Erdheim-Chester disease (2x17 All In) and the Bubonic plague (2x18 Sleeping Dogs Lie) in two consecutive weeks but on TV everything is possible.
Another misleading component of any medical show is the amount of medical jargons that the audience hears within an hour. The viewers are lead to believe that what is being shown and said on the shows are medically correct because actors are delivering complex medical terms that an average viewer do not understand. It might be surprising to many people to find out that the writers make mistakes almost every week. Websites like Politedissent.com contain articles written by real life medical doctors who analyze in detail how medically sound each week’s cases are. This is not to say that the medical cases are creations of the writers’ imaginations. Every medical show has at least one medical consultant who helps create the scripts with the writers. In the case of Grey’s Anatomy there is even a surgical nurse who helps guide the actors in how to properly handle the surgical equipment!
I have no doubt that there are also fans of medical shows who do not tune in every week for the shows’ scientific value but rather to find out whether if their favourite character will hook up with their secret (or not so secret) crush. Whether it is a scandalous affair or long unresolved sexual tension, romance is a big part of every television show. I can’t say for sure if love triangles actually happen to doctors as it does on Grey’s Anatomy but I do know that a sure way to find out is to study hard, go to medical school and experience everything for real.