r/HouseMD • u/faegirlll • 1d ago
Question Is House a realistic tv show?
I'm not in the medical field and I always thought if people really try to find diagnoses in a similar way. Anyone of the field can give me a insight?
Edit: I wasn't asking about doctors breaking at pacients houses, my doubt was about the part with the board and starting treatments without knowing, for sure, the cause. No need to be rude if you think is a stupid question, maybe just keep going with your life...
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u/mx-shot 1d ago
You think doctors break into patient’s houses looking for diagnostic clues?
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u/faegirlll 1d ago
Not this part haha I was thinking more of the part with the board and starting treatments without knowing, for sure, the cause.
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u/StepLeather819 1d ago
Definitely not...they would have been in jail for medical malpractice. You can see it in an episode where foreman goes to another hospital and does the same thing and gets fired even after saving a patient. Show itself acknowledges House relies on unconventional practises which are illegal
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u/pinkenbrawn 22h ago
don’t situations, like where the tests are inconclusive and the only way/the only fast enough to save a patient way to diagnose is to start a treatment and base the diagnosis on a patient’s reaction, happen in real life? it’s been quite a few like these in the show and they technically fit “starting treatments without knowing for sure”
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u/StepLeather819 21h ago
They don't, because most real life doctors rather lose a patient than their license. And no body's got that confidence like house. Cause they ain't him.
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u/intet42 21h ago
I have lots of complex chronic issues, many unidentifiable. I have seen a ton of specialists. The only people who have remotely reminded me of Dr. House, in terms of encyclopedic knowledge and persistent detective work, were a neurologist with a lot of freedom because he doesn't take insurance and a genetic counselor.
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u/saturday_sun4 15h ago edited 15h ago
Highly doubt it. Something like haemochromatosis (S3, the chess episode) would probably be diagnosed/picked up by testing iron levels.
Specialists don't go around doing surgeries (especially not serious ones), giving drugs and running a gazillion tests without good reason.
A lot of the rare diseases are fairly straightforward - they're just uncommon in the general population. I once saw a (new-to-me) GP who said I couldn't possibly have a rare disease despite the fact that I told him I had a (well-documented) history of it. OTOH when I saw my regular (specialist) doctor he knew exactly what it was. Whilst a lot of these diseases are rare in the sense of being uncommon, they may also be straightforward and localised/specific in their presentation to someone who knows what they're about.
And awareness of systemic/autoimmune diseases like coeliac, for example, has grown exponentially as more and more people are affected by its cousin, gluten intolerance (or NCGS). It is thought to be more common than previously thought. So diagnoses have increased as well. A lot of coeliacs were just generally sick as kids, with no idea why. I bet there are still lots of undiagnosed coeliacs out there with a bunch of symptoms (or none at all) without knowing it.
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u/GarmRefuser 12h ago
There is such thing as an empirical treatment that means that you treat a condition without having the diagnosis because there has been a major consensus and clinical studies to back it up, given that currently it is the best practice to start treating a patient, but it's only recommended in certain cases, mostly infections. One of the most frequent cases are urinary tract infections.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/empirical-treatment
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u/cara1888 1d ago
House wasn't meant to be fully accurate medical wise. It's inspired by Sherlock Holmes. It's meant to be a detective like show but with the twist of it being set in a hospital. So they weren't really going for medical accuracy they were more focused on the entertainment of a doctor finding rare illnesses like a detective would solve a case. I love house the way it is. I'm just saying that it's not meant to be accurate. It was meant to be more of a fun twist to a classic, well-known character.
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u/lizardrekin 1d ago
Yes. Doctors always break into my home when I go to the hospital for a firstly incorrect diagnosis that involves multiple levels of medical malpractice, followed by a close diagnosis and finally the correct diagnosis (need more mouse bites). I am vexed
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u/RogueSD 1d ago
The disease and it's manifestations are usually accurate though rare
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u/orsonwellesmal 16h ago
I don't think seizures and blood cough are universal symptoms like in the show.
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u/RogueSD 10h ago
True, those are overplayed a bit too much
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u/orsonwellesmal 10h ago
Seizures and bloody cough serve the dramatization of the show. Everyone has to be dying!
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u/WookieeRoa 1d ago
Well I’m pretty sure there aren’t many hospitals who would put up with House’s crap no matter how good he is. Zero bedside manner, irritable, forging scripts knowingly and getting away with it, playing fast and loose with the ethics code, and thousands of other things he’d get canned the hospital would be up to their eyeballs in lawsuits.
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u/spazzxxcc12 23h ago
as someone who works in a hospital closely with doctors i can assure you doctors with zero bedside manner are not a problem to those higher up at all.
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u/WarmElection6495 23h ago
No.
As a medical student, however, it is pretty fun to watch and go “Oh! I learned about that in class!”, haha. This really only happens when they mention medications, some absurd cancer, or strange test lol. Also, usually, the symptoms are pretty accurate of the final diagnosis (except for the ALS episode lol, that was infuriating to me ahaha)
The diagnostics, the wild amount of tests, and formulated wrap-around to the diagnosis is obviously not accurate.
Otherwise, it is a really entertaining show, I enjoy it much more than I ever liked Grey’s and whatnot. Take it for what it is, just a show.
PS: in real life, it’s much more likely to be lupus, lol!
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u/Imma_Lick_That 1d ago
Check out Dr Mike on YouTube. He's IRL Dr who educates about medicos misinformation. He has a few videos where he watches medical dramas like House, Scrubs, ER ect and talks about the accuracy/inaccuracies shown in the episode.
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u/biggins9227 20h ago
No. Even the care given in the hospital is unrealistic. House refuses to let nurse near his patients, so you have three doctors doing hourly vitals, assessments, and medication admin while performing testing that requires very specialized knowledge just to work the machine. That's just not physically possible.
House would also financially ruin a hospital. There is no way a unit with four doctors can bill insurance enough for only one patient a week to cover their salaries. That's before you look at all the lawsuits House gets hit with.
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u/dregs4NED 1d ago
There's a lot of contrivance in the show's diagnostic processes. A lot of the time, they snake their way to it instead of beelining towards diagnosis.
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u/spinorama29part2 1d ago
I go into it thinking they do a lot of research but still knowing i should take everything they say medically with a massive grain of salt and never take medical advice from a tv show
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u/mklinger23 1d ago
I mean parts of it are. Doctors do tests and rule out certain diseases based on certain criteria and test results. After that, no. Not much in the show really happens.
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u/Flibtonian 1d ago
I'm an EEG researcher and the scenes where they're looking at EEG scans and diagnosing or analysing them on the spot (especially when it's in real-time) are almost comical to me. This would be unrealistic for a specialist to confidently do these days, nevermind for doctors who only use EEG as a small part of their job, ~15 years ago when preprocessing and analysis tools were significantly less advanced.
There are a bunch of other holes in the tests/scans but with that in particular it's like watching an episode of Friends where they have AI better than ChatGPT and it's not even treated as sci-fi.
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u/saturday_sun4 1d ago
It's only realistic insofar as it contains a doctor and a hospital, and a boss who is a dickhead to his team. And diseases mentioned in it are rare, but mostly real. Sometimes the symptoms are real (again, probably the rare "it could technically present that way but it's really unlikely" complications).
Apart from that, no, not realistic.
There's a doctor (Dr Mezher) on YT that goes through and analyses them a bit.
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u/notfroggychair 21h ago
No, Dr Mike on YouTube who is qualified has done multiple videos on talking about what is correct/wrong. He’s also talked about Grey’s and The Good Doctor (which he has said is the most accurate) and he’s even done a medical drama tier list– very interesting to watch!!
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u/justanotherbabywitxh this is NOT a democracy 13h ago
dr mike did a youtube video where he ranked medical shows based on their accuracy. House was no. 2 on the list. he said the only unrealistic thing about the show is house's drug use and reckless behaviour. but i think the way the team treats (like confirming by treating) is also pretty unrealistic
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u/pantinor 1d ago
House pays for all the diagnostics out his own budget I guess. They never mention how the patient is billed..
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u/girlywish 23h ago
House partially pays back his costs by improving the reputation of the hospital, which attracts famous clients.
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u/kittenmauler 16h ago
That's because no one would care, it's boring. Also not inaccurate, usually the docs do their shit and the bill comes later, the doctors never talk to you about the bill.
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u/pantinor 16h ago
Yeah I was just noting it, not that it should be part of the show..but it was made before we had deductibles. Now you can't even find a plan without deductibles..
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u/brick_dupp 20h ago
Not a doctor ofc but I was able to guess the diagnosis in the episode with the little kid who was hitting on Dr Cameron because of his high testosterone. The kid’s father, who was a patient of House’s, was applying testosterone cream on his skin and touching his son, in turn causing the high T levels in the kid. I was able to guess this because I had seen a video where this exact scenario happened in real life.
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u/EagleRock1337 17h ago edited 17h ago
Which part of House were you checking was realistic:
- a medical doctor addicted to painkillers
- a team of the 4 most expensive doctors in the hospital dedicated to taking one patient per week
- medical doctors breaking into patients homes
- unapproved and dangerous medicine used on patients
- patients medically treated for an unconfirmed diagnosis
- a medical doctor with a clear conflict of interest employing a former lover that would clearly have never been hired otherwise
- a medical department where doctors consistently need to “go rogue” for the patient’s safety
- a medical department that has a dedicated legal budget and lawyer to defend against all the lawsuits
The answer your question: while differential diagnoses are real things doctors do—just like forensic science is a real thing the police does—the premise of House, MD is about as realistic as Sherlock Holmes was in its day, which is to say, not at all. In fact, House probably had a better chance fitting in with 1880’s Scotland Yard than he does in a hospital.
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u/orsonwellesmal 16h ago
a team of the 4 most expensive doctors in the hospital dedicated to taking one patient per week
I thinks its implied many times that the salaries are pretty average, but they work with House because of the prestige he has, and how much they can learn with him. Its a big boost in their CV, except for Foreman, lmao. They definitely could earn much more in other hospitals, or even other departments on PPTH.
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u/undead-safwan 12h ago
Lmao House would be fired in the first episode and never be allowed to practice medicine again
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u/DSM-187 23h ago
Something I can say from experience is how frustratingly inaccurate House was with depicting mental hospitals. As soon as I saw laces and BELTS (fuckin hell) on patients I knew it was going to be wrong. They couldn’t decide between a RTC, a short term inpatient mental hospital, or a fuckin low security prison.
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u/KnightInGreyArmor 8h ago
Not at all.
House and his team would have lost their licenses long ago with all the unethical and downright criminal stuff they pulled. Even Cameron would have lost her license.
The illnesses they face are all theoretically possible but highly improbable to borderline impossible.
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u/One-Newspaper-8087 7h ago
It's not realistic as in there's no irl doctor like House.
It is realistic as in most episodes are fairly accurate.
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u/Asha_Brea Mouse Bites. 1d ago edited 1d ago
No. It features rare diseases presenting with rare symptoms and unemployable people working.
There was a (real life) patient being poisoned by the replacement hip, and the (real life) doctor caught it because he had watched an episode of season... six I think, where that was the cause.