Pathology and pop culture

[BlackBantie]

Hello

I need to do an analysis of a pop culture artifact that deals with a career that I hope to pursue. Obviously it's pathology, otherwise I wouldn't be writing here. I'm sick of getting clichéd answers like ER, CSI, and Dr. G Medical Examiner. I'd like something a little more original...

It doesn't matter if it doesn't accurately portray life in the careerfield, I'll handle that in the analysis. All I need is a book, movie, TV show, song, etc. that somehow relates to pathology and laboratory medicine.

Maybe some of you have come across one of these and had a wonderful epiphany about pathology...haha.

Thanks for any help

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[Cabbage Head]

Hello

I need to do an analysis of a pop culture artifact that deals with a career that I hope to pursue. Obviously it's pathology, otherwise I wouldn't be writing here. I'm sick of getting clichéd answers like ER, CSI, and Dr. G Medical Examiner. I'd like something a little more original...

It doesn't matter if it doesn't accurately portray life in the careerfield, I'll handle that in the analysis. All I need is a book, movie, TV show, song, etc. that somehow relates to pathology and laboratory medicine.

Maybe some of you have come across one of these and had a wonderful epiphany about pathology...haha.

Thanks for any help

I think Scully was a pathologist. Forensics yes, but on aliens. Wasn't Dr. Kevorkian a pathologist? I gotta say, when you throw out forensics, you've just reduced path to about the un-sexiest part of medicine. It's like the guy on the Simpsons that runs the box factory: "Well, we don't assemble them here -- that's done in Flint, Michigan."

 

[xanthines]

Although the book was written like 80 years ago, "Arrowsmith" is a great book that is suprisingly still relevant (and depressing, in a way). It's a biting satire on American society first, and then a look at medicine's place within it second. There's a brief section where the protagonist, Martin Arrowsmith, works as a pathologist for a world-renowned clinic (I'm assuming it's meant to be the Mayo Clinic...) and how the rest of the MD's treat him. He also works as an epidemiologist in a small town where must also perform the duties of a pathologist/laboratory medicine guy/whatever. He's definitely one of the first American anti-heroes since he does a couple of dispicable things and whines a lot, but that just makes him all the more real. Apparently other people liked it as well, since the book helped Sinclair Lewis win the Nobel Prize.

I also happen to think this should be required reading for all MSTP students.

There's also some other book (which I didn't read) where the author traveled the country with Einstein's brain or something like that? Didn't that involve a pathologist?

-X

Hello

I need to do an analysis of a pop culture artifact that deals with a career that I hope to pursue. Obviously it's pathology, otherwise I wouldn't be writing here. I'm sick of getting clichéd answers like ER, CSI, and Dr. G Medical Examiner. I'd like something a little more original...

It doesn't matter if it doesn't accurately portray life in the careerfield, I'll handle that in the analysis. All I need is a book, movie, TV show, song, etc. that somehow relates to pathology and laboratory medicine.

Maybe some of you have come across one of these and had a wonderful epiphany about pathology...haha.

Thanks for any help

 

[deschutes]

Apart from what the previous posters have said, my personal non-professional opinion is that House M.D. most accurately captures how pathologists feel about clinical medicine.

By "non-professional" I mean that this comment is made in a role as a random poster on an Internet forum (versus in a role as a doctor) - I would hope that I was still being, as Merriam Webster defines it, "courteous, conscientious, and generally businesslike". Except when I'm defiling avatars, of course - that's when I'm simply being "businesslike".

 

[Brian Pavlovitz]

Well, I have a little place in my heart for Dr. Kay Scarpetta (of Patricia Cornwell fame). She's Italian and likes to cook, too! Not that these books got me interested in Pathology, but these novels sure are popular with the general public.

 

[beary]

Well, I have a little place in my heart for Dr. Kay Scarpetta (of Patricia Cornwell fame). She's Italian and likes to cook, too! Not that these books got me interested in Pathology, but these novels sure are popular with the general public.

I love these books!! I just discovered them this year and am working my way through every one.

 

[Brian Pavlovitz]

I love these books!! I just discovered them this year and am working my way through every one.

There's apparently a Scarpetta cookbook, too. Yummmm!

 

[yaah]

If you can get your hands on old Picket Fences episodes one of the main characters was a pathologist. He was amusing. Carter Pike or something.

 

[Pingu]

Or Quincy, one of the orignal TV pathologists!

 

[Aubrey]

Crichton's Andromeda Strain .. plenty of pathology in there!

 

[pathdawg]

Quincy is a good one, mostly because it was a really bad, cheesy medical show. Oh, and because Quincy (the character) basically lived on a really kewl boat, drank like a merchant marine, was constantly surrounded by babes (despite having a ridiculously bad hair piece and being like 60 years old), and basically had Sam (his trusty tech) do all the work while Quincy took all the credit.

Pretty much accurately describes my life as a pathologist.

 

[uhoh!]

here's one from the classics: Sherlock Holmes. The man was the "first" forensic pathologist, if you pay close attention to what he does. a lot of what he says is especially true for pathologists. A few examples:

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts."
~ A Study in Scarlet

"Breadth of view is one of the essentials of our profession. The interplay of ideas and the oblique uses of knowledge are often of extraordinary interest. " ~ The Valley of Fear

"Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms." ~ The Greek Interpreter (love this one because of my liking of Hemepath..)

And one for the clinicians who send crummy histories..
"I understand, however, from the inquest that there were some objects which you failed to overlook. " ~The Adventure of Black Peter