Doctors examine "House, M.D.": The instructive power of medical inconsistencies

Who doesn't know the series "House, M.D."? Dr. Gregory House, the anti-hero and self-proclaimed Sherlock Holmes of medicine, masters any diagnosis, no matter how absurd, with flying colors – as long as it's not lupus, because we know "It's never lupus". While we are entertained by the dramatic twists and brilliant one-liners of the grumpy doctor, a team from the universities in Zagreb and Dubrovnik led by Denis Čerimagić, neurologist and assistant professor at the Dubrovnik Polyclinic, has thoroughly examined the series from a medical perspective.

Since the series "House, M.D." continues to attract a lot of attention by depicting complicated medical cases, the authors wanted to investigate the discrepancy between the medical practices shown and real clinical practice. Their aim was to evaluate the cases as a potential teaching tool that could promote both the recognition of medical errors and an understanding of the value of teamwork and a multidisciplinary approach to medicine. Overall, the authors said they wanted to highlight both the entertaining and educational aspects of the series and show that, despite the errors, it could have a positive impact on medical education.

Their analysis of all 177 episodes of the eight seasons revealed 77 medical errors: 44 cases in infectiology, 19 cases in neurology and 17 cases in toxicology. They range from the incorrect use of adrenaline to bizarre presentations and carrying his walking stick on the wrong side.

MRIs are performed by anyone who happens to be wearing a white coat, and complex lab tests are completed instantly, as if the laws of time and space did not apply. Likewise, the series regularly shows doctors performing procedures that are actually reserved for other specialties or the lightning-fast procurement of complex lab test results that would take days or weeks in reality. Dr. House and his team have a seemingly endless number of resources at their disposal and a detective's instinct that even leads them into their patients' homes searching for the next environmental factors that could trigger a disease.

The doctor friends came up with the idea for the study spontaneously after discussing incorrect treatment concepts and technical inaccuracies in the series. "We are all three enthusiastic fans of this series", but at the same time they consider "some of the concepts practised by Dr. Gregory House to be inadmissible", as Dr. Goran Ivkić, neurologist and co-author of the study, explained to heise online. At the university, they had noticed the admiration for the style of Dr. House, "as the actor Hugh Laurie embodies the character of the peculiar doctor perfectly. This was one of the reasons why we wanted to demystify what is incompatible with the medical concept and medicine in general".

A treasure trove of medical inconsistencies

The study proves that the series is not only a veritable treasure trove of medical inconsistencies, but is also an excellent basis for clinical seminars – After all, sometimes you learn the most when you see how not to do it. At other universities, such as Hannover Medical School, series such as Dr. House, Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs have been a topic for years and are offered in the elective subject "History of Medicine: Medicine in Film". After all, medical errors on the screen are not a new phenomenon – just think of the legendary flash births in films and series, where the baby seems to arrive faster than the pizza delivery man!

(mack)