"coconut blood transfusion! It actually worked!"

It's been advertised like crazy. Off the Map (OTM), from the overly imaginative producers of Grey's Anatomy, fires onto cable television tonight. I'm not a follower of medical dramas whatsoever, but there was something that made me excited about this one. I've been a long time avid traveler (one continent left!) and have been been spearheading my faculty's global health department as well as gaining hands-on field experience myself. I guess it was this travel medicine bit that made me set the premiere on my iPhone calendar.

Well - my review is premature since I'm watching it as I type this (multitasking!). But let's look at the salient features of the show as well as some of the best lines I've heard on it.

Synopsis:
Young, good looking docs travel thousands of miles to re-discover why they entered medicine. Each has a different personal story, but they are bonded by their common need to run away from their life in the states. Within the first days of working, they are learn deep life lessons from the local seasoned doc and encounter riveting moments as the locals express profound gratitude for the American's altruism.

Hmmmmm...I can't even comment on this right now. I need to get a sweater to cover up my goosebumps.

Best lines:

"coconut blood transfusion! It actually worked!"
WTF?! Coconut transfusion? I can't wait to bring this up in the wards when I'm in the hospital during to an ER surgeon if we are ever low on the human donations. Just think how impressed he'll be. Sign me up for Gilligan's Island!

"I'm not a surgeon" - blond female doc
"Here, you're a surgeon........you're anything I need you to be." - the surgeon dude
I'm mentoring several groups going abroad this summer and if they pulled that on me, I'd sit them by the cow patties for a serious time out. Doctors who work outside of their skill set completely violate both basic global health ethics and medical ethics. You can't pretend to hone skills that you don't have just because you patients stem from lower resourced community. Can you imagine if a family doctor performed a triple bypass surgery on you? Yes - they WILL kill you.

"My grandma is 80 years old, but today because of you, she took her first real breath." *Tear*
Grandma reaches into bag and presents the sexy blond doc with a thank you chicken. *Insert chicken sounds*
This was actually probably the most realistic part of the show (minus the teary eyed patient). I remember a friend being presented a goat once when he was in Uganda. Back it went to the community.


Verdict?
To the 10th graders vying to be doctors, please take nothing away from this aside from the fact that doctors are obviously all gorgeous people. Apparently we are also all white (you can also be black, but only if you play a minor role in the show).

But let's take a serious look at global health and the show. My university has become a leader in filling in health gaps of lower-resourced communities. In fact, I just came back from workshop on it and am meeting the Dean of Medicine tomorrow about the future of it in our faculty.

I've been fortunate enough to learn first hand about the pillars that support the field: the ethics in working with developing nations, project development, acute disaster relief, cultural competency, needs assessment etc. OTM, like many other sugar-coated medical shows, glamorizes what medicine actually is. While doing so, it also completely distorts what it means to go abroad to practice medicine. Basic medical morals are thrown out the window and anything goes.

The show does have its merits though. For one, it fuels my fantasy that one day, medicine will actually be like that - I can save people with coconuts, fight my inner battles by saving a South American granny, and, along the way, hook up with a ton of hot young doctors who are also soul-searching.

Conclusions about OTM? I will probably stop watching the show here. It makes me angry that global health is presented in such a childish manner. But I will sleep soundly at night knowing that the public now has another reason to believe that docs working abroad are the modern sexy version of Mother Teresa.