Medical dramas on television: a brief guide for educators

The popularity of medical television dramas is well-established and medical educators are beginning to recognize the power of medical media as a potential tool for education. The purpose of this study was to view a number of medical dramas and consider their potential use in medical education. A total of 177 episodes from eight popular television medical dramas produced between 1990 and 2009 were systematically viewed and analyzed and a brief guide was developed for each drama. The dramas analyzed contained a wealth of material applicable to medical education. In our experience, each drama may be best suited to a particular educational use: for example, clips from "ER" and "Scrubs" offer more examples of teaching and learning than "House" and "Grey's Anatomy", which are perhaps better suited for topics on ethics or team work. We hope that this brief guide will encourage others to consider integrating this material into their teaching, and to explore how television drama may be used most effectively in medical education.