It was a mystery that couldn't be solved. Teams of doctors had examined the patient in every possible way to identify his illness, but so far, nothing. Then, there he was: Hobbling through the hospital on his trusty walking cane, the one man who could piece together this medical puzzle ... even if he was a jerk.
On Fox's hit series, 'House', Hugh Laurie plays Dr. Gregory House, a brilliant, problem-solving diagnostician with a speciality in infectious diseases and a taste for insulting both his colleagues and patients with brutally honest, narcissistic (but hilarious) quips. Now wrapping up its fifth season, 'House' has succeeded for numerous reasons. Not the least of these is its skillful and realistic depiction of modern medicine, for which the show relies on real medical professionals as on-set advisors and writers.
Among these advisors is Dr. David Foster, a full-time staff writer and consultant who holds a doctorate in medicine from Harvard Medical School and previously worked as a physician at Boston's Beth Israel Hospital and the Harvard School of Public Health. (When he first started on 'House,' Foster actually commuted from the East Coast to L.A. during production weeks so he could assist with the series as well as continue his full-time work at an inner-city health center in Boston.)
Today, Foster's team -- which also includes writers without medical backgrounds -- is responsible for coming up with plausible mysteries for Dr. House to solve. That can be a challenge in this post-'ER' age, when TV viewers demand realism from their medical shows, Foster said in an interview with Canwest News Service. "Fortunately, there's an endless number of ways the human body can break down," he said. "It's great for us; it's not so great for humanity."
Still, there are critics who believe some of the medical puzzles on 'House' could never occur in real life.
"There's always somebody who's going to say, 'That would never happen," Foster said. "But what they really mean to say is, 'I've never seen that,' or, 'This never happened to me' -- which may well be true. If you want to say that, you can say that. But that's not our show."
One critic is Scott Morrison, M.D., a family-practice physician who in his spare time hosts the TV and comics website, Polite Dissent. Writing for the general public -- not just docs -- on his site, Morrison analyzes the storylines of science-based TV shows and comics, meticulously rating and explaining their truth-fiction accuracy points.
As far as 'House,' is concerned, Morrison says via email that the show's "medical mysteries/diagnoses are all fairly accurate, just extremely, extremely unlikely. The writers will take an obscure disease, and then find its most obscure symptoms and presentation."
A good example of this, he says, is an episode revolving around visceral leishmaniasis, a parasidic disease similar to malaria. "Where the writers tend to play loose with reality is the doctors' choices of tests and treatments," Morrison explains. "Visceral leishmaniasis can affect many internal organs, but other signs and symptoms would appear before it became as severe as it did in the show."
Though he hasn't encountered quite as many medical mysteries as the acerbic TV doc, Morrison says one particular case of his came pretty close to an episode of 'House.'
"My most memorable mystery was a patient who was diagnosed with aplastic anemia; all his blood counts -- red, white, platelet -- were incredibly low," Morrison says. "He came in complaining of bruising, but had no other symptoms. He was active and had played a two-hour game of basketball the night before without difficulty. [Then] blood tests were run and showed that he had a life-threatening anemia and neutropenia. I had to hunt him down at his daughter's high-school graduation to get him to the hospital ASAP."
In Morrison's view, the most accurate part of 'House' is its depiction of clinic scenes. "Those are pretty true to life," he says.
And the least accurate?
"When they deal with blood-typing," Morrison says. "They always seem to screw that up."
Can't wait for the new season? Get your 'House' fix anytime with these handy links:
-- 'House' FAQ (example: Where, exactly, is Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital?)
-- Want to know what songs/artists are featured on each week's episode? (There are usually some good ones.) Here's where to look
There you have it. Now what are you waiting for? Watch 'House' on ClearTV!
-- Ted Goslin, Clear 365 Blogger
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