Back when ER hit the airwaves some 65 years ago, viewers obnoxiously started incorporating "stat" into conversations, and it made these people annoying. If Facebook had been around at the time, we would have un-friended them. But this group wasn't the worst. That title belonged to the people who trusted the medical advice handed out on a fictional television drama, which may have brought awareness to breast cancer and high blood pressure, but probably not the best advice for what to do when you fall out a window onto the spike of an iron fence. As more medical dramas popped up over the years, so too did viewer confidence in a script writer's ability to hand out AMA-approved medical advice. And here we are now, with serialized dramas House and Grey's Anatomy, which aren't so much about approved treatments as they are about an asshole doctor and a whiny skinny girl, respectively. Nobody should look at these shows and say, "Hey, I don't need health insurance to pay for a doctor's visit, because Hugh Laurie just gave me life saving tips!" But alas, some are. Which explains why the shows are being protested for allegedly passing off unsound medical information.

Missed in this whole equation, of course, is the fact that any medical treatments dished out must fit the show's plotline, not a real physician's handbook. Nobody told the Italians.

A leading Italian medical group said television programs with medical and hospital themes get so many details wrong that Italy's main broadcasters should refrain from airing them.

According to Annalisa Silvestro, president of the National Federation of Medical Colleges, offending programs include imported fare such as "ER," "House," "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scrubs," along with a host of Italian-made productions, several of which are scheduled to premiere with state broadcaster RAI or Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset when new schedules start in September.

The Order of Medical Professionals of Rome echoed the same view.

"These programs are teaching viewers inaccurate views on medicine," Silvestro said. "They are spreading misinformation."

No word on whether RAI and Mediaset plan to adjust their programming because of the protests.

[THR]