 Doctor
dramas have always been surefire network hits, and shows
like Dr Kildare, Trapper John, MD, St Elsewhere
and ER have all dealt with medicine with varying degrees
of realism. But another breed of doctor shows, part of
the so-called 'docu-tainment' reality TV movement which
fuses documentary and entertainment, is winning medicophiles'
hearts.
So why do these busy MDs agree
to be trailed by a camera crew and have their workday
travails beamed into everyone else's living rooms?
It all started with those can't-look-away
gross-out operation shows, but now the doctors rather
than the open wounds are the stars. Even normally-staid
Canadian TV has hopped on the bandwagon, producing several
reality medical shows, with titles like The Surgeons,
Trauma Team and Med Students, for specialty
cable channels. We asked some of the stars of The
Surgeons, which just wrapped up its third season,
about their reality TV double life.
OF
HASSLES AND HIGHS
The Surgeons is a lot like classic medical dramas,
with a storyline that follows patients and their surgeons
through an illness or trauma with all the inherent tensions,
guts and glory of the OR — except of course these
players are real. Most of the doctors we spoke to say
they took part in the show to promote the profession
and showcase the work being done at their centre. They
don't get paid to appear; their only material reward
is that the production company provides them with as
much footage as they want for teaching or fundraising
purposes.
But some of the docs featured admit
being a TV star wasn't exactly a cakewalk. Dr Fraser
Rubens, associate professor in cardiac surgery at the
University of Ottawa, remembers the TV crew following
him around for five days straight being "a huge imposition.
They almost follow you into the bathroom," he jokes.
But he's quick to add that his sacrifice served a higher
purpose: "I wanted to make it known that there are other
academic centres in Ontario, and I hope it will help
people learn more about what it's like to be a doctor."
In one episode, Dr Rubens treats
54-year-old cardiac patient Kelly Hopkins, using arteries
from her chest to perform a triple coronary bypass.
"It's an incredibly gratifying type of surgery from
the point of view of the relative benefits that so many
people get," he says. "And it's also such a wonderful
challenge to take such a sick group of individuals and
do such amazing things to their bodies, and they still
bounce back so wonderfully."
In the same show, Dr Rubens uses
a literally lofty analogy to explain to viewers the
highs of this kind of surgical success. "Surgeons are
very much like the mountain climbers that climb Everest,"
he remarks. "I like to think that I may have the same
sort of background or physiological need that they have
for a continued rush."
Dr Gyaandeo Maharajh, a pediatric
cardiac surgeon at the Children's Hospital of Eastern
Ontario who also appears in season three, has a slightly
different take. He says he wanted to use reality TV
as a vehicle to create a "shift in expectation" from
the assumption that medicine has advanced so far that
doctors are veritable miracle-workers. "We're not superhuman
beings," he says.
Others, like McGill University
Health Centre neonatal and pediatric surgeon Dr Hélène
Flageole, have more political agendas. "I thought it
would give a positive image of women in surgery and
that it might encourage women to go into surgery," she
says.
EDUCATIONAL
TOOL?
But for Toronto head and neck surgical oncologist Dr
Jonathan Irish, who's based at Princess Margaret Hospital,
it's all about the education. He views his appearance
on The Surgeons as a "media vehicle that can
actually educate the public — and others, like
my family and friends — about what we do." But
he adds, "I'm not sure entertainment would be the essential
element as much as education in a real environment."
TV and education have a long history,
but the reality TV label seems to have tarnished the
partnership. Who hasn't heard a dinner party guest holding
forth that reality TV is no less than the harbinger
of our civilization's decline? Mark Andrejevic, professor
of communications at Connecticut's Fairfield University
and author of book Reality TV: The Work of Being
Watched, doesn't view medical shows in the same
light as your usual Survivor-style reality shows, but
he does fear the shows might lose some of their potential
educational value in their eagerness to please.
"The doctor shows aren't contrived
in the way, for example, Big Brother or The Real
World are — they didn't build a set and devise
challenges," he explains. "However, one of the things
that has happened is that the line between reality and
entertainment has become so blurred that we start to
turn to reality not so much for education or news, but
for entertainment," he says. "Reality TV encourages
us to look at it through the lens of entertainment.
In this respect the reality TV trend may have coloured
the way we look at non-contrived reality."
Education versus entertainment?
At least one participant thinks the whole debate may
be moot. "The Surgeons is on channel 164," observes
Dr Rubens wryly. "Who gets channel 164?"
The Surgeons appears
on Discovery Health Canada on Wednesday nights and airs
on the Life Network beginning April 11.
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