Abstract
Previous literature has shown that patients obtain information about the medical system from television shows. Additionally, shared decision making is regularly cited as the ideal way to make decisions during a medical encounter. Little information exists surrounding the characteristics of medical decision-making, such as who makes the decision on medical television shows. We evaluate the characteristics of medical decisions in life-saving encounters on medical television shows and evaluate if these characteristics were different on staged and reality television shows. We coded type of medical intervention, patient’s ability to participate in decision, presence of patient advocate during decision, final decision maker, decision to use intervention, and controversy surrounding decision on three television shows. Frequencies by show were calculated and differences across the three television shows and between staged (ER) and reality (BostonMed and Hopkins) television shows were assessed with chi-square tests. The final data set included 37 episodes, 137 patients and 593 interventions. On ER, providers were significantly more likely to make the decision about the medical intervention without informing the patient when a patient was capable of making a decision compared to BostonMed or Hopkins (p < 0.001). Across all shows, 99 % of all decisions on whether to use a medical intervention resulted in the use of that intervention. Medical interventions are widely portrayed in the medical television shows we analyzed. It is possible that what patients see on television influences their expectations surrounding the decision making process and the use of medical interventions in everyday healthcare encounters.
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this study was provided in part by The Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and in part by the Health Innovation Program. The project described was supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program, through the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), grant UL1TR000427. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH. The funding agreement ensured the authors’ independence in designing the study, interpreting the data, writing, and publishing the report.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. The institutional funding source had no role in the study.
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Schwei, R.J., Jacobs, E.A., Wingert, K. et al. Portrayal of medical decision making around medical interventions life-saving encounters on three medical television shows. Health Technol. 5, 155–160 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-015-0107-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12553-015-0107-1