Inspiration from within

I don't know how many of you out there are House MD fans. But I sure is one. And its super awesome now I get to watch it on TV on par with all the americans (and always in a dilemma to watch House or Gossip Girl cause the air the same time but on two diffferent channels urghhhh).


Anyone ever wondered how the director/producer of House MD gets their cases? And whether or not those cases are real real cases or just make believe once?


Being in America and all, I had a chance to meet the inspiration behind House MD. Lisa Sanders - "Doctor behind House".

She choose to describe herself to be like Dr. House, except much nicer. The one thing I generally salute about her, and in fact, all the people who are like her, is that she has a career, a very much succesful one (she is an Emmy-Award winning TV Producer), and because she realise that she wanted her life to be much more meaningful than just making medical shows, she leave everything behind, and embark on the difficult journey of pursuing medicine. And everyone know medicine is the toughest course to study in America. 


One of the things she said during her talk at TJU was "70-90% of the time, an accurate diagnosis is formed base on the patient's history". She even pointed out that, if you realise, in House MD, most of the time Dr House diagnosed his patient correctly, after getting a part of their story out of them. Which is why she emphasize so much on "listening to patients". In fact, most of the time, doctors are so busy with their tight schedule and money making (the more patients you see the more money you make) that they limit their time with each individual patient and miss out things the patients wants to tell. 

Dr Lisa Sander's book - Every Patient Tells a Story

"Do not treat the disease, treat the patient with the disease", our orientation lecturer, Dr Majdan frequently remind us. Maybe now as medical student we're still all new to everything, and we still treat our patients as though they are relatives, but few years down the road, when we all become successful doctors, can we still face a crying mother, or a depressed child the same way as we treat them now? 


Dr Lisa Sanders talk was very motivating and inspiring. Haha it even made Ven and Joshua think twice about entering surgery. Because the whole basis of doctor-patient relationship is compromised in surgery (because the physicians are the once to see the patients when they're awake, and the surgeons see them when they're in the OT). 


Dr Sanders even provided us with some insight into the casting of House MD. She writes a column in the New York Times titled "diagnosis" to show readers some insight into the medical world from a doctor and a patient's point of view. One day, she receive a call from a producer, wanting to make a TV show about a doctor who is rude, arrogant, annoying and abuses drug. "Oh my, this wouldn't last long, better take it when the money's rolling" was her first thoughts about the TV show, and it went on to be a major hit on television. 


A few things about House MD which might amuse you. Ever notice how in House MD there are no nurses, lab technicians, radiographers, and the doctors just do everything? And instead of saying "well, you might have leukemia" the doctors just say "I'm sure you have leukemia" and ends up getting it wrong in the end.


Dr Sanders also shared that the storyline behind House MD was actually an inspiration of Sherlok Holmes, whereby the disease is the mystery and Dr House is the eccentric cranky detective of course. 

VS

We can all see the similarities here right. Haha. Did you know that the actors actually receive medical training before? Dr Sanders actually said there was a hard time training the actors to execute a convincing seizure. "Don't believe the show, it is generally not possible to bleed out of your ears and eyes at the same time". Rarr.


95% of the cases on House MD is based on a real patients case. "Of course, with some exaggeration" she added. "Its impossible to get bacteria vaginosis in your mouth, listen to the name". I can't really remember which episode has bacteria vaginosis in a person's mouth. Haha


I eventually bought her book. Its a very interesting read, I've only gone through one chapter and the cases are very complicated, but it also shows that a lot of diagnosis are made, because one step of the case is being missed, or disregarded. 


Do look out for her name when the credit rolls at the end of House MD.