T is for Televisually Transmitted Disease
Foreman: First year of medical school - if you hear hoofbeats you think horses, not zebras. House: Are you in first year of medical school? No. First of all, there's nothing on the CAT scan. Second of all, if this is a horse then the kindly family doctor in Trenton makes the obvious diagnosis and it never gets near this office. --House
PSA: Since we're talking about rare diseases today, it's worth pointing out that it's Porphyria Awareness Week!
If a story is set in a hospital, a good portion of the drama comes from the patients. And the audience can bet that this won't be a parade of flu and broken bones and heart disease. In fact, the rarer a malady, the more it seem to make appearances in fictional doctors' offices. Popular choices are Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (incidence 1 in 25,000 people), various types of porphyria (incidence 1 in 40,000 people), conjoined twins (about 1 out of 100,000 live births), and intersex patients (1 in 50,000 people).
In spite of complaints that portraying rare ailments in the media prompts perfectly healthy people to panic-search symptoms on WebMD, I'd argue that showing rare diseases in the media is a positive thing. Because of the rarity of many of the conditions that get play on medical shows, patients with these diseases are often misdiagnosed or ignored unless the patient or doctor happens to recognize the symptoms for what they are. And yes, there is at least one documented case of someone seeing their symptoms on TV and rushing to the doctor just in time. If the rare illnesses are portrayed in realistic detail, these fictional presentations have the potential to raise awareness and potentially guide people to the specialist medical care they need.
PSA: Since we're talking about rare diseases today, it's worth pointing out that it's Porphyria Awareness Week!
If a story is set in a hospital, a good portion of the drama comes from the patients. And the audience can bet that this won't be a parade of flu and broken bones and heart disease. In fact, the rarer a malady, the more it seem to make appearances in fictional doctors' offices. Popular choices are Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (incidence 1 in 25,000 people), various types of porphyria (incidence 1 in 40,000 people), conjoined twins (about 1 out of 100,000 live births), and intersex patients (1 in 50,000 people).
In spite of complaints that portraying rare ailments in the media prompts perfectly healthy people to panic-search symptoms on WebMD, I'd argue that showing rare diseases in the media is a positive thing. Because of the rarity of many of the conditions that get play on medical shows, patients with these diseases are often misdiagnosed or ignored unless the patient or doctor happens to recognize the symptoms for what they are. And yes, there is at least one documented case of someone seeing their symptoms on TV and rushing to the doctor just in time. If the rare illnesses are portrayed in realistic detail, these fictional presentations have the potential to raise awareness and potentially guide people to the specialist medical care they need.
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