Bad advice on medical dramas

CNN reported today on a new study that shows that medical dramas on television do a poor job depicting how to treat someone with a seizure. It isn't the first time that medical television shows have been criticized for how they depict medical situations. But it does raise the question about how much influence these shows have. Many viewers realize that the dramas they are watching are fiction. Actual medical care is as undramatic and calm as possible.The television writers and producers have to make these things more dramatic to make them worth watching.

But do the television writers have a responsibility, even if they are writing fiction? They have a tremendous audience, and one of those viewers may encounter someone experiencing a seizure or in need of CPR. It is conceivable that a viewer will act as they have seen the doctors act on television. Does the writer have a responsibility to medical accuracy, even at the cost of drama?

Maybe, medical reality can be as dramatic as fiction.

Medical advice on television

The New York Times published an article on Sunday about the syndicated television show The Doctors. The Doctors is a show where a panel of physicians offer medical advice, often about topics that patients might find embarrassing to bring up to their own physician face-to-face. The show has quickly gained popularity, matching the audience of other, more established talk shows.

The article points out that the success of the show points to the public appetite for health information, especially in financially difficult times and for those without health insurance. The producers and hosts of the show, as well as health advocates, remind audiences that the information in the show is not intended to replace a visit your own doctor, but rather, supplement it.

So what do you think of the popularity of this show? What cautions do you think the show should take? What would make this tool even better for patients? How can this show facilitate patient-physician face-to-face communication?

One more word on Meredith and Derek and their clinical trial

A couple weeks ago, I mentioned the season finale of Grey's Anatomy and the unrealistic portrayal of clinical trials. Well, it turns out I'm not the only one who noticed. The Association of Clinical Research Professional June ACRPWIRE reprinted an editorial from the Coalition of Cancer Cooperative Groups expressing concern that the show equated cancer clinical trials with a death sentence.

You can find the article here: http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/acrpwire/issues/2008-06-05/1.html.

It can be potentially dangerous when television shows spread misconception about how medicine works. When a television show or other mass medium breeds potential mistrust of medical research, everybody suffers.

Unrealistic portrayals of clinical research

First, I hate to admit I even watch Grey's Anatomy. It's such a soap opera. But I have had to laugh in recent weeks about the portrayal of Meredith and Derek's clinical trial. First of all, Meredith has some epiphany, makes some discovery in text book and just decides she wants to do a clinical trial. Of course, first, she has to find an attending to sign off. But Derek signs on and next week they are enrolling their first patient. HA! In the real world, that's not all she has to do. I guess it just isn't sexy showing the months and years of laboratory research, institutional review board applications, grant applications and reapplications and the months of waiting for IRB approval, and then several rounds of amended applications.

And then in this week's episode, the chief of surgery approached Meredith and said the institutional review board, the national review board that oversees clinical trials, is concerned because she has had 11 deaths and she has one more chance before midnight to enroll and treat a patient. What is this, Cinderella? First of all, the institutional review board is local, not national. There would be someone breathing down her neck right at her hospital. And there are no "one more chances in clinical research." If an IRB thinks a trial is dangerous, they are not afraid to shut a trial down immediately. But in Meredith's world, she sneaks in two more patients, one of them lives, the trial continues, and she even gets her man in the end.

I know, I know, television dramas have always had an unrealistic view of the practice of medicine and the medical profession. These shows are about entertainment, not education. But I believe the writers are selling their viewers short by speeding through the research process. There certainly is great drama and story in the less flashy parts of research. But maybe that's just the researcher in me talking.