<p>If any of you watch house, what field of medicine are the characters in the show specialized in? Is it even a real field? Do the things they do on the show reflect a realistic hospital situation in terms of investigating, analyzing, treating rare diseases/symptoms?</p>
<p>House: Nephrology, Infectious Disease
Cuddy: Endocrinology
Chase: Intensive Care
Cameron: Immunology
Foreman: Neurology
Wilson: Oncology</p>
<p>New Characters:
Kutner: Sports Medicine, Rehabilition Medicine
Number 13: Internal Medicine
Taub: Plastic Surgeon</p>
<p>I'm about 95% sure these are all real fields.</p>
<p>All the fields phonyreal mentioned are real except Intensive Care. I don't watch the show, so I couldn't tell you what Chase is, but Intensive Care is more an area of the hospital, covered by a broad range of specialties. I have heard people say they want to be a "diagnostician" because that's what House is, and that is most certainly not a real specialty.</p>
<p>Those are the specialties they TRAINED in. All are real fields. However, only Wilson actually practices in the field mentioned. (I don't know the new characters.) The main four practice Diagnostic Medicine, which is not a real field. Cuddy is now the Chief of Medicine and sees very few patients.</p>
<p>The show is not remotely realistic. It is by far the worst medical show on television if you are interested in realism. Of course, if you like excellent writing, characterization, etc., then House is one of the better shows on TV.</p>
<p>Well since we're discussing medical-themed TV shows, how does Grey's Anatomy measure up?</p>
<p>^ To real life? They are residents, but for some reason they always go home at the end of the day.</p>
<p>Grey's is also horrible. They're all pretty bad, but Grey's and House are really the horrible two. (For realism, that is.)</p>
<p>I love watching House, but I think in a real hospital he would have been fired years ago.</p>
<p>In a real hospital, specialists (or residents in that specialty) do the specialized tests. You would not even see a cardiology resident doing angiography, for example. Angiography, especially angioplasty, would be done by, at a minimum, a cardiologist doing an invasive cardiology fellowship after completing "regular" cardiology.</p>
<p>ditto for lab tests, imaging and such. Do you really think they'd allow non-radiology residents to operate a million dollar MRI? (Maybe during the 2-3 AM time slot...)</p>
<p>There is an emerging specialty managing intensive care patients. From medterms.com: " Intensivist: A physician who specializes in the care of critically ill patients, usually in an intensive care unit (ICU)."</p>
<p>How unfortunate! They should hire someone to help them out with accuracy, because I love Grey's (What girl doesn't?).</p>
<p>How bout ER? I personally think that this show was probably one of the best medical dramas out there.</p>
<p>not only would House have been fired a long time ago, i believe he would be doing 5 to 10 at some prison by now. probably longer.</p>
<p>Aiya. Okay, since everybody seems to want to know which TV shows are the best:</p>
<p>1.) Scrubs. The social dynamic on the show is off, but the medical problems they have are probably the best on television. Which is to say, they might get it somewhat close maybe half the time.
2.) ER. The main complaint about ER is that it's not representative. Any given case on ER might look (mostly) like any given case in an actual ER, but the television show is skipping 99% of what actually happens there. And, the social dynamic on the show is off.</p>
<p>(Big, big, big gap.)</p>
<p>3.) Grey's Anatomy. The social dynamic on the show is way off, and the show has been known to simply make up weird diseases, demonstrate surgeons doing things they'd never be trained to do, cure everything with ridiculous procedures, have absurd side effects, and do things that would not only get them fired but arrested. Routinely.</p>
<p>4.) House. Any show which revolves around a non-existent specialty, presents the diseases wrong, and has people doing things they have no idea how to do ... well.</p>
<hr>
<p>
[quote]
They should hire someone to help them out with accuracy
[/quote]
The problem isn't that they don't know how. The problem is that most of medicine doesn't make for good television. So they choose to ignore it to make a reasonable drama. They have medical consultants on the show. They just have to ignore them, because an actual ER or surgical team wouldn't be remotely watchable.</p>
<p>Wait, you mean I can't get shadowing credit by watching GA every Thursday? </p>
<p>Uh oh. Better go revise my AMCAS.</p>
<p>That's probably mostly true, but I love watching the ER and hospital shows on Discovery Health and that's real medicine, I think it makes thrilling TV! Perhaps I'm weird, though!</p>
<p>Hahaha.... I truly hope no one has ever done that. You know it's on every thursday, you must be a fan, or just taking a wild guess.</p>
<p>
[quote]
shows on Discovery Health
[/quote]
Again, these suffer from the same problem as ER. They're skipping over 99% of what actually happens there in favor of the interesting stuff.</p>
<p>No kidding. Well now I feel stupid! I get that feeling quite often here. Thanks!</p>
<p>In your defense, there's no way you could be expected to know that. These shows are popular largely because they portray themselves as very realistic. It's not the audience's fault that they're skipping over things.</p>
<p>I still feel totally gypped! Oh well, I'll still watch.</p>
<p>Oh and BTW, BDM, you're in medical school, right? How do you have time to come on here and answer everyone's questions?! I'm just curious. You must have some good time management.</p>