January 7th, 2008
The cult of medical celebrity
We live in a celebrity-obsessed age.(Picture from the Wired blog.)
Wealth and fame won’t make you happy, but it seems to be all we want. Which is why the idea of being a doctor, let alone a lawyer, is no longer popular.
More fun to play one on TV, and treat celebrity nutcases whose main problem seems to be that everyone pretends to care about them. Dr. Phil, step away from the TV camera. You’re the one who needs an intervention.
I’d like to think we’ve reached the extreme end of an era, one marked by two classes, those who are on TV and the rest of us who aren’t. But I could be wrong.
The Internet was supposed to end the TV era, but in medical terms it’s just created a forest of new TV cameras. How can a physician build a practice these days without a Web page? Your page rank means more than your credentials.
I have nothing against people like Dr. Andrew Weil, but can’t you leave the cookware sales to Emeril? The messenger is getting in the way of the message, even when both come with the best of intentions.
Weil’s own Web site tells us a lot about these times. It has gone far beyond what competitors like Healthline and Revolution Health are doing, leaving us with patients who claim to know more about what you’re doing than you do, when in fact all they have are opinions and endorsements, same as ever.
My grumpy mood may be the result of burying a real hero but I think there’s more to it than that. We’re linking ego strokes to financial success more closely than ever, and it’s helping neither doctors nor patients.
Physicians should spend some time these next few weeks telling patients a hard truth. The TV isn’t real. They’re real. The lives of those on the tube are no different than those outside it. They are no wiser and no more wonderful.
And while you’re telling them that, remind yourself of it as well. You’re doing great work, even without the camera crew.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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