Lab life. In the beautiful auditorium of the Georges-Pompidou European Hospital (HEGP), crowded, a little familiar music resounds. The credits of a famous medical series scroll on the big screen. Then the doctor on the platform, Elie Cogan, emeritus professor of internal medicine at the Free University of Brussels, speaks gravely. “Is Doctor House really the model internist? Is it legitimate to give his name to the prizes that we award each year during the Printemps de la médecine interne? », he asks, specifying, as is customary for any presentation at medical congresses, his conflicts of interest. (In this case, he doesn’t, he claims.)
This Friday, March 25, is the 27e edition of the Spring of Internal Medicine, an annual training day attended by some 300 of these specialists. Throughout the day of this symposium like no other, organized under the leadership of Professor Jean-Benoît Arlet (HEGP), the participants work on diagnostic enigmas, which are real cases, in a festive, musical and humorous atmosphere. Since 2009, the group organizing the days has awarded two Dr-House prizes each year to the best diagnosticians, another name for internists.
In eight seasons (broadcast from 2004 to 2012), Gregory House, the hero of the American series created by David Shore, has in fact largely contributed to popularizing this specialty, by showing its most spectacular facet: the ability to diagnose particularly complex or rare diseases, following a Sherlock Holmes-style investigation. But the tribulations of the diagnostician played by British actor Hugh Laurie do little to highlight the versatility of internists on a daily basis (to give a recent example, internal medicine services have largely contributed to the care of Covid-19 patients ).
A cumbersome reference
Above all, House’s human qualities leave something to be desired… For part of the profession, he has even become a cumbersome reference. “It gives an unfortunately simplistic vision of internal medicine. And if he shares with Socrates the search for truth, his diagnostic approach and his methods, often non-ethical, are problematic”, exposes Professor Elie Cogan. From the first season, the tone is set, continues the internist by projecting an episode extract.
“Didn’t we become a doctor to treat patients? asks a team member.
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