Criticism of healing world German medical series

Physicians practice criticism of cure German medical series

03/29/2014

In German art series is too much „heal world“ shown. At a congress, surgeons criticized German formats. Series on US television are much closer to reality. Media scientists are also criticizing and wanting more medical and health education on television.

Actor finds serial operations rather boring
It was earlier „The Black Forest Clinic“ or „The country doctor“, that's how it is today „In all friendship“ or „Sachsenklinik“: Doctor series enjoy great popularity in Germany. Actors like Thomas Rühmann find operations in the „Sachsenklinik“ but rather boring. „I can not get any surgical flash in the OR“, Rühmann said loud dpa. You only see your eyes anyway. The ARD television series „In all friendship“, in which the actor plays the chief physician Roland Heilmann, turn around six million viewers. In this healty world of television, everything often goes well.

US doctor series saved lives
On Friday, physicians and media scientists at the Berlin Surgeons' Congress asked themselves whether it would not be possible to do more in terms of health and education from medical series on public television. With formats like „Dr. House“ This already works wonderfully in the USA. The Marburg University doctor Jürgen Schäfer, who is known for six years „Dr. House“ To use in seminars for its students, the US series, which deals with rare diseases, researched excellently. And so well that he felt in the serious suffering of a patient after using a hip prosthesis reminded of a consequence. At that time headlines made such „TV series dr. House saved lives“ the round. The patient had been admitted to the clinic in 2012 with a series of unexplained symptoms. The 55-year-old showed a heart failure, was almost deaf and almost blind, had also fever of unknown cause, an underactive thyroid gland as well as a gastric reflux caused by reflux of gastric acid. He also suffered from lymphadenopathy. In the search for the causes, the doctors remembered one „Dr. House“-Followed and came through this help to the correct diagnosis: Cobalt poisoning. Shepherd to: „Good entertainment can save lives.“

Potential for health education is given away
There's a reason health education works so well in US fiction TV formats. As Schäfer reported, the National Health Authority is offering scriptwriters medical advice. „I would like that in Germany as well. We give away a lot of potential in health education.“ Also Marion Esch, media scientist at the Technical University of Berlin, has been dealing for some time with the contents of German medical series. She criticized: „There is no explicit understanding for us that television entertainment should form.“ The high-tech country Germany with its research successes in medicine and science, technology and computer science would be in the „sweetener“ hardly reflect the productions.

Professor criticizes image of women in German doctor's series
And that, although TV series would certainly influence career aspirations. So have about the US production „CSI“ with its emphasis on evidence and evidence, in all countries in which it is broadcast, for more freshmen in the field of forensics provided. Another point that bothers Professor Esch is the image of women in German doctor's series. So a female chief physician is hard to imagine. „And if a woman makes a career properly, she is quickly a raven mother.“ As Esch reported, her students hated these stereotypes. Again, this is completely different in US series.

Illness looks very different in reality
Even if Edmund Neugebauer, an expert in surgical research at the University of Witten / Herdecke, has nothing against German doctor series, he still sees possibilities for more. „If episodes showed how self-confident and responsible patients behave in the hospital, that would be great“, so Neugebauer. „I like to advise the TV.“ It is still true that many doctors did not explain enough and asked too little patients. Therefore, new role models on TV would be good. The producer of „In all friendship“, Sven Miehe sees German doctor series settled in an extreme healing-world tradition. In reality, illness often looks very different. But he feared a loss of viewers, if it should come to a change. However, media scholar Esch believes this is a glimpse of the future. Younger would anyway watch the US series on the private channels and seniors preferred the German formats on ARD and ZDF.

Spectators want to be able to sleep well
Thomas Rühmann, who has been playing TV-Surgeons for 16 years, sees his „Sachsenklinik“ Although blurred, but has no problem with it. After all, the audience wanted to be able to sleep well afterwards. For example, there have been allegations that television would make people go crazy when there was an episode on bird flu. For the actor, medicine also does not play the biggest role in the series. Although he had looked at the surgery in the university hospital for preparation, but he liked the series more entertaining conflicts. (Ad)