TV series vs. reality
UW/H doctoral student receives award for research on disease and death on screen
How realistic are medical TV series such as Dr House or Grey's Anatomy? Romana Macherey, a PhD student at Witten/Herdecke University, investigated this question in her PhD thesis - and intensively analysed over 300 episodes. Her conclusion: the staging of illness, death and intensive care scenarios differs drastically from reality in some cases.
While dramatic emergency operations often take centre stage in series, in reality patients often die quietly and without much fuss. Macherey not only analysed this discrepancy scientifically, but also presented it at the renowned International Symposium on Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine(ISICEM) in Brussels - where he was awarded a poster prize.