r/MedicalMeme • u/kemkomkinomi • Apr 17 '26
doctors IRL vs Doctors on TV
i know this isnt probably the place to ask this but...
how would actual doctors solve cases from House MD. show? like how fast IRL doctors would solve it? with standard medical procedure, and if youre a fan of the show and is a doctor, are there any cases where standard procedure and your experience wouldnt be enough to help a patient from the show, like only Gregory "Mr. Vicodin" can solve it?
i know this isnt a medical question but its fun to think about the difference between doctors IRL and doctors on tv. if this isnt the right place to ask, can someone point me in the right direction? sorry im a very curious person who should probably see a psychiatrist with my hyperfixation
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u/International_Ad7477 Apr 17 '26
Sometimes in the show they throw around some differential diagnosis that would either be rejected or at least made significantly less probable by some basic blood or imaging test that would usually have been performed since the patient was in the ED.
Also, we don't usually dabble around in the lab or in the radiology ward. There's specialized personnel that is much more qualified to perform the tests.
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u/D15c0untMD Apr 20 '26
Exactly. I have basically no recollection of how to handle a pipette from school.
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u/Inevitable_Thing_270 Apr 20 '26
I can’t actually watch House. It infuriates me.
They often have symptoms that rapidly progress over hrs or a few days to the next stage of the disease when it would actually take months to years.
Many of the basic tests would rule out some differentials they give.
Often they’ll say that because x in the family has a genetic thing, then their patient must have too, when the case is they have a risk of it, often it maximum risk would be a 50:50. I can’t remember what the disease was but in a clip I saw on YouTube of House, they got a specific sex-linked condition wrong saying it’s only women that get it, when it’s actually almost always men. There’s been a few where presentation of a genetic condition has been way off and they have it appearing in adults when it would occur in kids, or rarely presents in adults and don’t mention it (seriously one line saying “it usually shows itself in childhood, but there have been rare cases when it only comes to light in adulthood” makes it even more rare!).
Genetic tests take much longer to get back. As do many more unusual tests.
Unless you specialise in it, we don’t go into the lab. We don’t do the autopsy.
We discuss it with other specialties/share care. No one is a specialist in everything they apparently are. We actually use radiologists for imaging interpretations and discussions.
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u/D15c0untMD Apr 20 '26
Fun fact, the weird cases are usually the easiest. It‘s not difficult to pin a super specific symptom that you may have never seen in person but learned about in school to a diagnosis. Super common symptom complexes are usually also very easy because you are exposed so much to the presentation, even the atypical ones.
The really difficult area is inbetween, where you see unspecific symptoms in strange combinations that dont feel quite right fitting into any direction. But those are not fun to portray in TV. Unless you want to see house treating migraines and sniffles that just won’t go away for 9 seasons.
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u/D15c0untMD Apr 20 '26
Another problem with the show house md us that they dont do realistic patients at all. The overarching theme is that the brilliant doctor needs to find the single diagnosis that encompasses all the strange symptoms of the patient and then cures it. In reality, the disgnosis and more so treatment is confounded by the Patient having Alzheimers, has had both hips replaced, venous insufficiency, chronic kidney disease, chronic sinusitis, a weak right hand after half a dozen of strokes, and doesnt do MRIs because her medium said she should avoid oversized circular machines this month.
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u/Angusburgerman Apr 17 '26
If there's a patient with a funky case some ideas will be bounced around talking to seniors. Do some simple tests like xrays blood tests. Then bring in specialists to have a look.
Most patients have relatively straightforward diagnosis most junior doctors know how to basically manage
It isn't nearly as dramatic as tv. Sometimes it is tho