I don't know if this hasn't been brought up - sorry, haven't read the whole thread.
The biggest problem with Dr. House is in real life, I can't see patients taking his advice. Sure, he's a skilled clinician... but people are stubborn, and I've seen over and over again where people did not follow what their physicians told them to do because they didn't like their physicians' attitudes. I've seen families fire our most experienced, very skilled intensivist because they didn't like what he told them about their loved ones' prognosis. They ended up with someone who'd only been out of fellowship for a year, who knows a lot less, but whom they liked much better because of his attitude.
Maybe we'd all pick competence over attitude on here because we know better, but the general population are idiots and will listen the nicest physician every time, regardless of competence. Unfortunately, those are the people we have to convince to take care of themselves so they can stay out of the hospital and quit driving our healthcare costs up, so we need to graduate more people that they will listen to.
Most medical problems can be prevented by taking your grandmother's advice. Eat less, exercise more and keep yourself hygienic, etc. Most of medicine is trying to get patients to perform these behaviors despite their inconveniences. A doctor like House would be completely ineffective and either have no patients or else no other group would want to take him because he is too high risk. Additionally, he would be hard to work with and would often end up missing important signs due to his arrogance.
Interpersonal skills MATTER a lot. Yes, even for fields like Pathology or Radiology where you have to convey your findings to the other medical staff. You have to be a person that other people want to work with.
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