Hey, everybody, this is Rishi and in this video, I'm going to
be reacting to some TV radiologists from the show Scrubs.
This was one of my favorite shows when I was going through medical school,
but I have never really looked at it from the perspective of a radiologist.
So it's going to be interesting to see how accurate it really is.
All right. You're on your own.
Eliot's unlucky streak
continued with the head of the radiology department, Dr. Moyer.
You told me my patient had colitis,
and it turns out it was just traveler's diarrhea.
So sounds like good news.
Yeah, he took it as bad news maybe
because of the unnecessary colonoscope I shoved three feet up his pooper.
What do you want me to do?
Apologize to my patient and tell them it was your mistake, no big deal?
I think I'm going to pass on that one.
See, I got you pegged as one of those spineless types
that's not going to cause me any trouble no matter what I do.
So thanks for stopping by and don't forget your car door.
I just I want to get stolen, OK?
That was me not caring.
OK. That's a really funny clip.
Let's start with a technical kind of medical aspects of it.
So she said that the patient had traveler's diarrhea
and he made the diagnosis of colitis.
Traveler's diarrhea is just an infection of the intestines that you get
from eating contaminated food.
And usually it happens when people are on vacation.
And so that's why it's called traveler's diarrhea.
And he made the diagnosis of colitis,
which is an inflammation of the large bowel, the colon.
And if you add that suffix itis on to most parts of the body,
then it just means inflammation of that part of the body.
So pneumonitis is inflammation of the lung
and gastritis is inflammation of the stomach.
So colitis is inflammation of the colon.
And you can get that
from a couple of different things, one of which is an infection.
So I feel like he actually made the right diagnosis here.
And really for travelers, diarrhea, you don't really need imaging
to make that diagnosis.
All you have to do is put together the signs and symptoms and the patient's
history and physical.
And you can usually make that diagnosis pretty easily
when they tell you that they had a history of recent travel.
The second part of that clip was that she asked him
to apologize for the mistake, and that is actually pretty accurate.
So there's a push in radiology
and in medicine in general for doctors to start apologizing
for the mistakes that they may make when they treat a patient.
And it's not super widespread, but
it is a movement that is gaining some traction.
So that was actually pretty accurate. And this is an old clip.
So kudos to them.
Look, I know you're the only x ray tech on tonight allright.
But I just had a quick abdominal scan to make sure Mrs.
Farr doesn't have an obstruction. I don't know who they are.
Don't know how they're doing.
Just want to go click, click, click and get them out of here.
Your lady is about 40 people down on the list.
And as always, there are no cutsies.
Now, look, got to be something I can do.
You see, because the way I laid on top of you, I tell people
this is an x ray of Siamese twins.
How cool is that?
It's so cool that lets never talk to anyone about it ever. Oh, OK.
That that's a really funny.
So first of all.
So that was that was the x ray tech or the rad tech.
And he wanted JD wanted to get his patient a CT scan.
Usually for a big hospital like this, and I suspect it's a big hospital
because there's a bunch of residents in multiple different
subspecialties, you're going to have more than one x ray tech.
And not only that,
but usually the x ray techs are going to have their own specialties.
So the people who are doing x rays or radiographs are going to be different
from the people who are doing C Ts, and they're going to be different
from the people doing MRIs and Fluoro, et cetera.
So you're usually at a hospital like this, there's more than one
x ray tech and they do their own subspecialty.
OK. Second thing he said, no, cutsies that's true.
But it's also kind of not true.
Usually if you have a patient who is in urgent
need of a scan, which I'm not sure if this patient was or not.
Then you can make things happen in a hospital.
OK, so there's different levels of urgency for patients.
And if a patient is really urgent, then you can always get that patient in,
even if they're far down the line, far down the queue.
Oh, unfortunately, that's when we ran into a brick wall.
I'm the head of the radiology department.
You call me in from home to do an abdominal CAT scan
that could wait until Monday morning.
Guess what? It's not happening.
Dr. Moyer--- These are my machines.
Sir-- My machines, my machines, my machines!
How is that helpful?
Sometimes I dream.
OK, I really like that clip for a couple of things.
One, let's talk about like the technical aspects.
He's talking about my machines.
It's probably not the case that they're his machines.
The hospital usually owns the machines unless he worked out some kind of deal
with his practice
and the hospital where he leases the space and he owns the machines.
That's possible.
But in most hospitals like this, the hospital is going to own the machines.
But also what's really funny is he comes in from home wearing his bathrobe
just to tell these guys that he's not doing the abdominal CT scan.
That's that doesn't happen. OK.
Number one, we talked about the rad techs being there all the time, basically,
in a big hospital.
So it's the rad techs who actually obtain the images
and, you know, "take the pictures," not the radiologist,
and it's the radiologists who then interpret the images.
But second, if you were not going to do the study, why is he coming in from home?
Just to tell them that that doesn't make any sense.
But what I think is the most funny thing about
this is just how bad the reputation of radiologists is.
You know, these these shows have medical consultants on them.
And so I'm sure that something like this
has happened to that medical consultant who works on this show,
which is really bad because,
you know, today radiologists are, in my opinion, very helpful people.
They usually I mean, for me, I am really happy
when a clinician comes in to the reading room to talk about their patient.
But there was something called
the golden age of radiology, which I'm sort of fuzzy about.
But a lot of older radiologists talk about it.
It's like was during the 80s and 90s and the amount of work was a lot less.
And I suspect that some of that bad reputation
that radiologists have today is due to the radiologist
from the "golden age of radiology." But yeah, super funny clip.
Doctor Moyer, you're going to give Mrs.
Farr abdominal CAT scan, and I'll tell you why.
You remember that colon patient of mine that you screwed up on?
Well, I'm going to tell him exactly whose fault that was.
And then I got to spend every waking second helping him
figure out how to physically and financially bitch slap you,
even if the end result is that we both get our asses fired.
Your move chuckles. Bring her down.
Eliot! Hell yeah!
OK, that's that's not how it works, OK.
That that makes for a good story.
But that's not how it works.
But one thing that is true about what she said
is that radiologists get sued quite a bit.
So radiologists are the target
of a lot of medical malpractise lawsuits.
And that was totally, totally accurate.
So that's legit.
All in all, though, I give Scrubs a pretty high rating for medical accuracy,
not when it comes to like the very small details,
but when it comes to like the larger issues that arise in medicine.
I think Scrubs is actually pretty accurate when it comes to that.
Anyway, this was really fun to do.
If you have any clips of TV show or movie
radiologists and you want to get my take, let me know and I'll take a look. Thanks.