MDs Influenced by TV Doctors

Ugh, I do know doctors who jokingly say they watch ER to pick up tips. Now I wonder about the jokingly part:

(NaturalNews) A study conducted by 2 doctors in the University of Alberta Hospital suggests that real doctors are influenced by medical techniques they've seen performed by TV doctors. Drs. Peter Bindley and Craig Needham performed the study to find out why so many medical students were using a faulty technique to insert breathing tubes in patients.

Some of the doctors that were questioned for the study said that they learned through "trial and error," but a large number confessed that they acquired certain techniques from medical staff on popular TV shows. The study was initiated while the doctors were looking for better methods to teach resuscitation methods in the school.

"We asked medical students 'Where did you get some of your ideas before you even came into the medical profession?' And interestingly enough, ER came up as the number one influence," Dr. Brindley reported in an interview with Canada AM.

Brindley, who is a critical-care specialist at the University's hospital, and his colleague Dr. Needham, also took the time to analyze 2 full seasons of "ER" and discovered that, of the 22 fully-visible intubations depicted on the show, each erred in some manner with respects to the head positioning of the patient. "Not once was the resuscitation done properly," Brindley said. "And that's despite having numerous medical experts advising the show."

The study, published in the journal Resuscitation, was not the first to examine the influence of Hollywood doctor's on real-life. In 1996, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report analyzing cardiac arrests on three shows - "ER", "Chicago Hope", and "Rescue 911". 75 percent of the patients depicted that went into cardiac arrest were revived.