Medical Reviews of "House" (opens in new tab)

(politedissent.com)

19 pointsnearestneighbor15y ago12 comments

12 comments

I wanted to ask House fans with any kind of medical background: are real doctors expected to have as much encyclopedic knowledge of even rare diseases as Dr. House seems to display?

My own experience with MDs, in good hospitals, was that they misdiagnose even simple and common things, that they should have been able to diagnose correctly, given the symptoms.

robryan15y ago

I guess it would be similar in a way to how many algorithms/methods you are able to use from memory without referring to a reference in programming. I think we have a tenancy to assume people from other professions are super human experts while knowing that even after years of experience in our own there is still a lot of times reference material needs to be looked at.

chc15y ago

I'm no doctor, but even on the show, House's expertise is portrayed as extraordinary.

JacobAldridge15y ago

And he still gets it wrong at least three times an episode (twice if there's a compelling personal narrative to fit in as well).

ugh15y ago

House is a diagnostics expert, not just a MD.

nearestneighborOP15y ago

I didn't realize that "diagnostics" was a medical specialty.

1 more reply

gte910h15y ago

I was so happy to see a doctor of mine go look things up: Human memory is not a good database. Repeat that 100 times.

sliverstorm15y ago

I have always felt the existence of pages like these, picking apart House and actually analyzing the content, was a good sign. If House was way off base, it would simply be dismissed out of hand.

nearestneighborOP15y ago

I don't know. I thought radiation to treat a possible brain tumor without knowing where it is was way off-base.

sliverstorm15y ago

Oh, it'll be totally loopy sometimes. I never expected perfection.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

12 comments

nearestneighborOP15y ago

I wanted to ask House fans with any kind of medical background: are real doctors expected to have as much encyclopedic knowledge of even rare diseases as Dr. House seems to display?

My own experience with MDs, in good hospitals, was that they misdiagnose even simple and common things, that they should have been able to diagnose correctly, given the symptoms.

robryan15y ago

chc15y ago

I'm no doctor, but even on the show, House's expertise is portrayed as extraordinary.

JacobAldridge15y ago

And he still gets it wrong at least three times an episode (twice if there's a compelling personal narrative to fit in as well).

ugh15y ago

House is a diagnostics expert, not just a MD.

nearestneighborOP15y ago

I didn't realize that "diagnostics" was a medical specialty.

1 more reply

gte910h15y ago

I was so happy to see a doctor of mine go look things up: Human memory is not a good database. Repeat that 100 times.

sliverstorm15y ago

I have always felt the existence of pages like these, picking apart House and actually analyzing the content, was a good sign. If House was way off base, it would simply be dismissed out of hand.

nearestneighborOP15y ago

I don't know. I thought radiation to treat a possible brain tumor without knowing where it is was way off-base.

sliverstorm15y ago

Oh, it'll be totally loopy sometimes. I never expected perfection.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse