Why I like House

Having followed ER since the first episode of the first season (when Carter was a medical student, and before I was a medical student), I've really gone off it lately. It's become too much of a melodrama and doesn't make you think anymore. An early episode featuring a case of methaemoglobinaemia sticks particularly in my mind. But ER just bores me now.

House MD on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish. It's all about solving the case. It is a fantasy world of medicine, where the crack team flits from specialty to specialty, and have all manner of complex investigations at their disposal. Despite the ostentatiously modern setting (compared to the Victorian hospital building where I work anyway), it is made fundamentally of the same stuff that inspired Conan Doyle to create Sherlock Holmes.

Ever notice that House takes on a disproportionately large number of paediatric cases? That is what attracted me to paediatrics in the first place - the same presentation in a child can imply a much greater number of differrential diagnoses than in an adult. The relationships - whether emotional or genetic - between the child and his parents can heavily influence the course of investigation and the outcome.

The last (and slightly guilty) thing I like about House is that he is often not just blunt, but frankly rude to patients - and gets away with it. I've been sorely tempted so many times (but obviously always think better of it), that it's such a relief even to watch a fictional doctor do it on screen. I particularly like his approach to the vaccine-refusing parent (season 1 episode 2) - it's a situation I've been in many times (and may I add that the scenario in the show is very realistic), and I've often had to suppress an urge to respond in the manner House does!