{"id":33,"date":"2008-12-20T13:46:05","date_gmt":"2008-12-20T12:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=33"},"modified":"2020-07-17T10:41:04","modified_gmt":"2020-07-17T09:41:04","slug":"house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2008\/12\/20\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\/","title":{"rendered":"House MD: just what the doctor ordered"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fox.com\/house\/gallery\/502\/502_3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"192\" height=\"144\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fox.com\/house\/gallery\/\">http:\/\/www.fox.com\/house\/gallery<\/a>\/<\/p>\n<p>Back in the mid-80s when, as a junior doctor, I went to work in the US, I caused a mini-panic amongst the nurses by refusing, at least for a short while, to sign &#8220;MD&#8221; after my orders. An order in this context being a written order to the nurses to do the myriad of small and big things that comprising the nurse-delivered medical care of a patient. The reason for my reluctance to sign myself MD was that, in England, an MD was a person who had undertaken clinical research, written a thesis, and had subsequently been awarded a medical doctorate. By contrast, MD written after a person&#8217;s name in the US simply means that that the person is medically qualified.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>I tried to explain that instead of writing MD I should instead be writing BM BCh Oxfd, the equivalent qualifications for an Oxford trained doctor, but to no avail. Without the MD after my name the nurses weren&#8217;t happy to carry out my orders. They even started to look a little concerned in case I wasn&#8217;t really an MD. Which of course I wasn&#8217;t. Something important was clearly being lost in translation and it didn&#8217;t take long before I&#8217;d given in and began to sign myself Deborah Kirklin MD. Order was returned and orders were acted on.<\/p>\n<p>Which is just one of many reasons why I was pleased to publish a paper about the hit US drama House MD and the counter-intuitive appeal of its anti-hero.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/34\/2\/93\">http:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/34\/2\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In his paper,\u00a0Medical paternalism in\u00a0<em>House M.D., <\/em>Mark Wicclair ponders the conundrum that lies at the very heart of the immense popularity of this off-beat TV drama: why, at a time when respecting autonomy is undoubtedly top-dog when it comes to the principles underpinning Western medical care, \u00a0do so many people seem to love House? \u00a0Wicclair offers some interesting insights. Perhaps you&#8217;ve some of your own. You can let us know either by posting a response here or by posting an e-response to his paper.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>http:\/\/www.fox.com\/house\/gallery\/ Back in the mid-80s when, as a junior doctor, I went to work in the US, I caused a mini-panic amongst the nurses by refusing, at least for a short while, to sign &#8220;MD&#8221; after my orders. An order in this context being a written order to the nurses to do the myriad of [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2008\/12\/20\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[15060,15044],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","tag-arts","tag-research"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>House MD: just what the doctor ordered - Medical Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2008\/12\/20\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"House MD: just what the doctor ordered - Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"http:\/\/www.fox.com\/house\/gallery\/ Back in the mid-80s when, as a junior doctor, I went to work in the US, I caused a mini-panic amongst the nurses by refusing, at least for a short while, to sign &#8220;MD&#8221; after my orders. An order in this context being a written order to the nurses to do the myriad of [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2008\/12\/20\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-12-20T12:46:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-07-17T09:41:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.fox.com\/house\/gallery\/502\/502_3.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/20\\\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/20\\\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"House MD: just what the doctor ordered\",\"datePublished\":\"2008-12-20T12:46:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-07-17T09:41:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/20\\\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":362,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/20\\\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.fox.com\\\/house\\\/gallery\\\/502\\\/502_3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Arts\",\"research\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Film and Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/20\\\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/20\\\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-humanities\\\/2008\\\/12\\\/20\\\/house-md-an-anti-hero-or-just-what-the-doctor-ordered\\\/\",\"name\":\"House MD: just what the doctor ordered - 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