5 TV shows that are entertaining for docs and educational for patients
Industry Buzz
Television can bring medical conditions to life in a way that makes them real to the public and develops understanding and empathy.
—Brintha Vasagar, MD
The problems faced by patients, physicians, and staff will... be resolved by the end of the episode, which we all know does not happen in real life... problems persist, resolution[s] or cure[s] may not occur, and managing uncertainty is often the key to maintaining sanity.
—David Cutler, MD
Health and medicine have long been the subject of TV storylines.
For better or worse, viewers watch as physicians dart across their screens to save patients, some in seemingly impossible circumstances. The accuracy? Variable. The entertainment value? Also variable.
MDLinx chatted with two experts about TV shows that depict medical storylines in both entertaining and educational ways.
“Television can bring medical conditions to life in a way that makes them real to the public and develops understanding and empathy. Highlighting the impact of these diseases can help raise much-needed funding to find a cure. Media holds a responsibility to portray illness realistically to combat misinformation,” Brintha Vasagar, MD, a family physician, tells MDLinx.
ER, Scrubs, and House are just some popular medical TV shows. But experts say the quality of such TV programs is improving.
“There has been a recent rise in the number and quality of medical TV shows in the past few years. You would have to be a TV addict to have viewed all the episodes of all the shows,” David Cutler, MD, a board-certified family medicine physician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, tells MDLinx.
Here is how Dr. Cutler rates some popular TV series with medical storylines.
Related: Docs love this medical TV drama—and it might actually be making their jobs easierThe Pitt
“My favorite [medical show] is The Pitt,” Dr. Cutler says.
“The set design, characters, and drama transport you into the urban ER setting depicted. The show is emotionally intense—both for the patients and healthcare practitioners—which is what gives this show … great appeal to many, but [it] may be upsetting for some.”
Berlin ER
“A similarly excellent TV series—produced in Germany—is Berlin ER. The gritty nature of this production focuses more on some of the social aspects of care, such as underfunded health systems, physician addiction, and the ethical conflicts in the hospital ER setting,” Dr. Cutler says.
“While the show gives a distinctly German perspective on these social issues, the medical … setting will be quite familiar to viewers of American medical series like ER and Grey’s Anatomy.”
Brilliant Minds
“Brilliant Minds is a medical series inspired by the writings of neurologist Oliver Sacks. The show delves into rare neurologic conditions presented as complex diagnostic puzzles,” Dr. Cutler says.
“This drama is more psychological than the chaos of the ER setting. The rarity of the conditions offers less opportunity for the general population to augment their healthcare literacy than the emergency room dramas described above.”
St. Denis Medical
“St. Denis Medical is a workplace comedy with appealing characters and satiric writing. It explores the daily chaos and compassion of medical professionals navigating bureaucracy and absurdity in an underfunded facility,” Dr. Cutler says.
Related: Docs sound off: What medical TV shows get so, so wrongBest Medicine
“Best Medicine is an American version of the excellent British series Doc Martin,” Dr. Cutler says.
“This show features a Boston surgeon who relocates to a small Maine fishing village to serve as a general practitioner. What it may lack in medical accuracy, it makes up for with the charm of the rural New England setting.”
How realistic are these shows?
Dr. Cutler notes that these shows are for entertainment, and on-screen depictions don’t always reflect reality. But the shows may still improve patients’ health literacy.
“All these shows explore real issues faced in the medical setting. In this way, they can all provide some value to boost patient health literacy. But in general, you will see more action and drama in 1 hour of these shows than in 1 day in the actual medical setting,” Dr. Cutler says.
“The problems faced by patients, physicians, and staff will generally be resolved by the end of the episode, which we all know does not happen in real life. In the medical world we all live in, problems persist, resolution[s] or cure[s] may not occur, and managing uncertainty is often the key to maintaining sanity,” he adds.
Related: Is this season of 'The Pitt' foreshadowing the continued breakdown of medicine in the US?