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Does ill-tempered doctor really deserve adoration?

Are curmudgeon doctors what patients really want?

Date published: 6/26/2005

HERO WORSHIP of the curmudgeon doctor. Is that what we've come to?

A "crusty and ill-tempered" person is what the dictionary tells us a curmudgeon is. I have been accused of being a little curmudgeonly myself. So I am intrigued that the latest TV hero, Dr. Greg House of the Fox show "House," is the archcurmudgeon.

The TV doctor has evolved. From the dashing hunk (Dr. Kildare) to the genial, fatherly (Marcus Welby) to the bumbling and laughable (Frazier and Dr. Huxtable), we now have the drug-addicted, sarcastic Dr. Greg House.

My patients are loving this anti-hero. God knows why. His personality is epitomized by a quote from one episode: "Treating illness is why we became doctors. Treating patients is actually what makes most doctors miserable."

I have been pilloried for such politically incorrect sentiments. But this hard-hitting, in-your-face infectious disease specialist played by Hugh Laurie (in stark contrast to his former role as the upper-class English toff Bertie Wooster) has captured our hearts it seems. One blogger I read says, "The show is brilliant, and he is my new hero."

"House" has not captured the heart of the profession. The Center for Nursing Advocacy is very bent out of shape at the "disservice" the show does to nurses.

Playing off House's premise that "everybody lies," the Center says, "The show itself is a damaging lie: that a team composed entirely of physicians would rove the hospital providing all significant care to desperately ill patients as the few nurses and other professionals stand silently in the background or simply disappear."

Each episode is centered around some desperately sick patient that no one can diagnose--until Dr. House reluctantly gives his dyspeptic attention, that is.

Like Sherlock Holmes--who, apparently, the character is modeled after--he does not tolerate fools gladly and is usually much too preoccupied with his higher cerebrations to be bothered. That is, until some fascinoma catches his interest.

Then, it's no-holds-barred until he diagnoses the arcane disease. In one episode, the patient is dying, but finally, after much brilliant sleuthing, House shows that the patient has cysticercosis (tape worm larvae) in the brain.

In real life, says the center for Nursing Advocacy, the diagnosis would have been made by some savvy nurse seeing tape worm segments in the stool as she emptied the bedpan. Not so romantic.

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Date published: 6/26/2005