A Real-Life Doctor Who was an Inspiration for the Show House
August 18, 2009 by Lynn
House is Right regular reader Grace was wonderful to let me know about a great article covering one of the real-life inspirations for the character of Dr. Greg House. (Thanks, Grace!)
Her name is Dr Lisa Sanders and she just released a new book that talks all about the mysteries of diagnosis. The book is entitled Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical Mysteries
Dr. Sanders is 53, is from Connecticut and has been one of the medical advisors for House since it first aired. She often uses unusual cases from her own career to pitch story lines for the show. The article about her is on the Times Online site and tells of some of her more amazing and interesting cases…some of which we’ve already seen used to inspire House episodes:
She says her job is to provide these “cool stories” for the writers to work with and vet scripts for any heinous medical errors. “I have a great one that I’m going to pitch today,” she says happily. “It’s about a guy who has seizures triggered by loud noises. They’re doing a thing about a policeman so I thought it would be good.”
The article is extremely interesting and I highly recommend that you go read it in its entirety, since it’s quite long. It tells how she and Hugh Laurie both really like and admire each other’s work, how she first came to be a consultant on the show and what she and Hugh have in common personally.
She seems like a non-jaded House-like doctor and if any of us finds ourself without a diagnosis for something that seems life-threatneing, we should all hope there’s a doctor like Lisa Sanders somewhere nearby.
