dr. house

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DreamyKid

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I'm just curious, what kind of doctor is he?
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...but watching the TV show would lead you to believe that he is a surgeon, emercengy medical physician, and internist all wrapped up in one...that's TV drama for you...
 
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From one of the episodes:

"I am a board certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology."
 
I knew I'd heard nephrology (maybe the 1st of 2nd time I'd seen the show), but after many more episodes, thought I might have imagined this.
 
On the show, he is the Director of Diagnostic Medicine, a fictional specialty.
 
Yeah, I tried looking up that Fellowship that they're in on FREIDA and didn't have any luck.
 
I thought I remember hearing that he was an internal medicine doctor which would make the most sense. Minus all those ventures into the surgical ward, he is mostly diagnosing.
 
Why yes, I am fangirling.

House went to med-school at Hopkins. He matched into a residency at Mayo, but his acceptance was rescinded (can they even do that on ERAS?) after he was caught cheating on an exam (shelf?), and thus went with his second choice of Michigan Ann Arbor (where he met Cuddy). He probably did an IM residency, and fellowships in nephrology and infectious disease. Board certified in completely-made-up specialty, but there you go.
 
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Aynsl156 said:
Why yes, I am fangirling.

House went to med-school at Hopkins. He matched into a residency at Mayo, but his acceptance was rescinded (can they even do that on ERAS?) after he was caught cheating on an exam (shelf?), and thus went with his second choice of Michigan Ann Arbor (where he met Cuddy). He probably did an IM residency, and fellowships in nephrology and infectious disease. Board certified in completely-made-up specialty, but there you go.
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note that they never mention which board
 
He is not board certified in a non-existing specialty. He is board certified in infectious disease and nephrology. He IS however, Chief of Diagnostic Medicine, which even in the House world doesn't exist. Cuddy just made up a departement for him, which all the strange cases go to that no one else can figure out.

My question is, what kind of people diagnose problems that are very complex like the ones on House that others can't figure out?
 
Aynsl156 said:
Why yes, I am fangirling.

House went to med-school at Hopkins. He matched into a residency at Mayo, but his acceptance was rescinded (can they even do that on ERAS?) after he was caught cheating on an exam (shelf?), and thus went with his second choice of Michigan Ann Arbor (where he met Cuddy). He probably did an IM residency, and fellowships in nephrology and infectious disease. Board certified in completely-made-up specialty, but there you go.
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:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
 
PreMedDocMD said:
My question is, what kind of people diagnose problems that are very complex like the ones on House that others can't figure out?
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They're called colleagues or second opinions. There really isn't a specialty for "cases no one else can figure out".
 
Diagnostic Medicine sounds very redundant. It's like saying "wet water".
 
baylormed said:
They're called colleagues or second opinions. There really isn't a specialty for "cases no one else can figure out".
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it is too strong a phrase, but in the descriptions in the residency forums it is noted that infectious disease folks tend to be good diagnosticians.
 
Doctor~Detroit said:
it is too strong a phrase, but in the descriptions in the residency forums it is noted that infectious disease folks tend to be good diagnosticians.
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Yeah...if the disease the patient has happens to be infectious. :hungover:
 
You guys must watch Hugh Laurie in Rowan Atkinson's The Black Adder. You can download the episodes as a .torrent on mininova.org. Great actor he is, Hugh Laurie.
 
And this from Wikipedia!: Edelstein's left eye is slightly higher than her right. This is a condition called hypertropia.
 
Law2Doc said:
Agreed. But it's ok because he works at a fake hospital on fake patients.
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Actually, the University Medical Center at Princeton (affiliated with Robert Wood Johnson Medical School) is moving to Plainsboro, NJ (just across Rte. 1). So....there will be a university medical center in Plainsboro, NJ in 5-10 years from now!
 
Um I think He did his undergrad at U of M and met cuddy there, she was a few years younger than him. You find that tid bit out when cameron and one of the guys are searching Cuddy's house in that episode w/ her gardener guy who has coccidiomycosis (I think...) I dont know I really need to be reviewing Physics and Chem questions not contemplating house episodes...whatever
 
I would do Cuddy
 
shevie said:
Um I think He did his undergrad at U of M and met cuddy there, she was a few years younger than him. You find that tid bit out when cameron and one of the guys are searching Cuddy's house in that episode w/ her gardener guy who has coccidiomycosis (I think...) I dont know I really need to be reviewing Physics and Chem questions not contemplating house episodes...whatever
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Actually he went to Undergrad at Hopkins
And Med school at Hopkins but got thrown out for cheating
Then he went and finished med school at U of M where he met Cuddy.
 
happy snake said:
You guys must watch Hugh Laurie in Rowan Atkinson's The Black Adder. You can download the episodes as a .torrent on mininova.org. Great actor he is, Hugh Laurie.
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Black Adder goes forth? Or Black Adder the third? (He's great in both!)
Young Mr. Laurie's got the kind of voice that conveys "big ears" whenever you hear it.

Have you seen him in Jeeves and Wooster? It's tops.
 
PreMedDocMD said:
He IS however, Chief of Diagnostic Medicine, which even in the House world doesn't exist. Cuddy just made up a departement for him, which all the strange cases go to that no one else can figure out.

My question is, what kind of people diagnose problems that are very complex like the ones on House that others can't figure out?
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This isn't a made up specialty. My dad is a rheumatologist and Director of Diagnostic Referral Services for the Children's Hospital where I'm from. His team is only available by consult. They basically do what House does, sans the attitude/arrogance.
 
Aynsl156 said:
Black Adder goes forth? Or Black Adder the third? (He's great in both!)
Young Mr. Laurie's got the kind of voice that conveys "big ears" whenever you hear it.

Have you seen him in Jeeves and Wooster? It's tops.
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Not Jeeves and Wooster. Will try to download that.... and you're right, both as Prince Regent and Lieutenant George, Laurie's great. Anyone seen Atkinson's The Thin Blue Line??
 
shevie said:
Um I think He did his undergrad at U of M and met cuddy there, she was a few years younger than him. You find that tid bit out when cameron and one of the guys are searching Cuddy's house in that episode w/ her gardener guy who has coccidiomycosis (I think...) I dont know I really need to be reviewing Physics and Chem questions not contemplating house episodes...whatever
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He went to med school at hopkins but cheated off the guy who had the wrong answer and was developing this migraine treatment in Asia that House tested.

He wasn't an undergrad at Michigan.
 
ogre2.jpg




NNNNNNRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDSSSSSSS!!!!!!!
 
It's a specialty that no one knows about.

Their offices can't be found by walking around in any hospital. You have to go into the elevator, make the correct hand seals, put candles on the floor, draw big emblems and chant the correct dark magic spell to get the special button and keyhole to appear. You have to slay the dragon in the hospital basement and seduce the lovely but deadly Serpentine Witch to get the key. Then you use the key and press the button and it will take you to the diagnostic medicine floor. From there you have to kill an army of ninjas armed with candy canes and solve the ancient riddle of the Irish Porcupine to make an appointment.
 
Law2Doc said:
ergo, your father must be fictional as well.:)
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Careful there Law2Doc, you're becoming cynical with each passing day. Not that this is necessary a great evil.
 
The people who figure out the cases no one else can figure out are epidemiologists; House, M.D. is actually based on stories of very old cases "solved" by the CDC. Most of the cases involve infectious diseases but some have been the result of exposure to other toxins in the environment.
 
LizzyM said:
The people who figure out the cases no one else can figure out are epidemiologists; House, M.D. is actually based on stories of very old cases "solved" by the CDC.
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Except that in House, the doctors regularly seem to perform various surgeries, perform and read their own radiology films, perform their own autopsies and tissue cultures etc. In a given episode the 4 main characters will do tasks normally handled by a half dozen specialties. I kind of doubt any physician has this scope of practice in real life.
 
This can be explained by the fact that while they each have their own specialties, they are part of a 4-person team of diagnosis. It is known they have one case a week, so they have the time to run their own tests.

This also speeds up the process by cutting out the middleman and avoiding errors of processing by nurses and/or technicians.

On another note, House is a television drama, not a documentary. For those that hate the fact that a lot of isn't real and/or plausible, remember it is entertainment, not informational.
 
xucardsfan08 said:
This can be explained by the fact that while they each have their own specialties, they are part of a 4-person team of diagnosis.
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That might hold water if it wasn't often the same person on the team doing eg surgery, pathology, rad-onc and radiology over the course of an episode. It is fictional, and no doctors act with this kind of scope. So don't think you can go into ID and nephrology and do the same kind of job you see House doing. No such pan-specialty job exists. And for good reason -- it's hard enough to be a master in one of those fields, let alone all.
 
Doctor~Detroit said:
it is too strong a phrase, but in the descriptions in the residency forums it is noted that infectious disease folks tend to be good diagnosticians.
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Heh. Tell that to the ID people who had my sister on antibiotics for a bruised tendon. ;)

EDIT:

And for good reason -- it's hard enough to be a master in one of those fields, let alone all.

QFT. I round with the internal medicine/surgical folks in the trauma ICU on Sundays, and it's amazing how little we know about the human body. Actual clinical exposure tends to increase one's incredulity towards Herr House significantly.
 
Aynsl156 said:
Black Adder goes forth? Or Black Adder the third?
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Honestly, the entire Black Adder series is ****ing gold. Watching it is like getting a phd in dry humor/sarcasm.

"They do say, Mrs M, that verbal insults hurt more than physical pain. They are, of course, wrong, as you will soon discover when I stick this toasting fork into your head."

I'm sorry, but HouseMD just can't match that. It's science.
 
Law2Doc said:
That might hold water if it wasn't often the same person on the team doing eg surgery, pathology, rad-onc and radiology over the course of an episode. It is fictional, and no doctors act with this kind of scope. So don't think you can go into ID and nephrology and do the same kind of job you see House doing. No such pan-specialty job exists. And for good reason -- it's hard enough to be a master in one of those fields, let alone all.
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I disagree - weren't there (maybe even still?) rural-frontier family practice doctors that did everything from prescribing antiobiotics to minor surgery?
 
CATallergy said:
I disagree - weren't there (maybe even still?) rural-frontier family practice doctors that did everything from prescribing antiobiotics to minor surgery?
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To some degree. Sure there are FPs who treat infections with ABs, maybe do some minor surgery, and deliver a baby or two. But they aren't doing the kind of autopsies, brain surgery, CT/MRI interpretation, radiation treatments etc etc they do week to week on house. My point is TV is fictional. You can't have the same job as House because no one has such a job with such scope of fields. People specialize because in this age of increasing medical knowledge it is difficult to maintain competence in one field, let alone several. But sure, if you want to go work in the middle of nowhere where you are the only physician in a hundred miles, and the closest thing to a surgeon, obstetrician etc. then yes, you probably get to do whatever is medically necessary on whatever patient walks in the door. But that isn't exactly House, is it?
 
My point is, not that Dr. House is an epidemiologist, or that there is anyone "in real life" who does everything that he does (including the surgeries) but for diagnostic conundrums (the cases no one else can diagnose), one calls the CDC and they send some young hotshots out to start asking questions, looking in people's homes, picking through garbage, etc.
 
blackadder said:
Honestly, the entire Black Adder series is ****ing gold. Watching it is like getting a phd in dry humor/sarcasm.

"They do say, Mrs M, that verbal insults hurt more than physical pain. They are, of course, wrong, as you will soon discover when I stick this toasting fork into your head."

I'm sorry, but HouseMD just can't match that. It's science.
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Great! Another fan of Black Adder. :thumbup: I think the brits are the best at dry humor/sarcasm.
 
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