What real-life doctors would like to see in medical dramas:

Last update: January 4, 2008 - 4:04 PM

Dr. Felix Ankel, ER physician, Regions Hospital

"I'd set the camera angle from the patient's viewpoint. I would probably cut down a little bit on the unrealistic amorous and juvenile matters of the heart [a la 'Grey's Anatomy']. I would show conflicts between drug companies and physicians, between device makers and physicians, and between administrators and physicians."

Dr. Jon Hallberg, family physician, University of Minnesota

"I would tell a story from the viewpoint of an immigrant family that doesn't speak English, that's on medical assistance, and doesn't have good access to health care. They show up 15 to 20 minutes late and the doctor won't see them. The woman has two to three kids in tow and now needs to use the emergency room. A show like that could have a lot of impact to build empathy by showing the things people have to go through to get care. It would illustrate the problems with primary care and the problems with health care financing."

Pat Schlievert, microbiologist, University of Minnesota

"There was this rerun where House was on an airplane coming from Korea and somebody had the bends after scuba diving. There was mass hysteria. Everybody thought it was an infectious disease. I know how to dive and dive tables are so careful these days. A better story would be if he had Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, which you get in the South Pacific. It's a very serious disease and is 60 percent fatal. It would have explained the rash. It would have been perfect. I was sitting there thinking: 'Oh, you idiots, why didn't you use that?'"

CHEN MAY YEE

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