No longer practicing medicine, Harvard-trained internist David Foster is now a writer and medical consultant for the TV show “House.” He combines his experience and the Merck Manual of Medicine to create the show’s dramatic medical scenarios. I’ve never seen the show, but the article’s author claims the issues “resonate with authority and realism.”
Foster says, “I’m able to influence public debate and public thinking through the stories we tell on ‘House.’ I’m able to have a voice in public health and public policy and the medical world.” It’s great that the scenarios of a medical TV show can be plausible, but I’m troubled that a doc has more influence on public health, policy and medicine on Fox than he did while practicing in inner-city Boston.
via Kevin, MD