Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin | Spring 2009 | Departments | Pulse

Departments — Pulse

Spring 2009

Untitled Document

Special Report
> Special Effects
    > Sidebar: FaceBook
> Playing Doctor
> The Lost World
> Tales Out of School
> Cinema Veritas
> Script Doctors
> We’re Ready for
    Our Close-Up
    > Sidebar: Screen Mapping
> Watch and Learn
> Changing Channels

Features
> Design for Life
> Doctor Who?

Departments
> President’s Report
> Pulse
    > Ready for Prime
        Time Players:
        Second Year Show
    > Linked In:
        Harvard Catalyst
    > Reel Medicine: NOVA
    > Making His Move:
        George Thibault
> Benchmarks
    > Rites of Passage
    > No Sponge Left Behind
> In Memoriam
    > Thomas H. Weller

Reel Medicine

In 1987, the crew of the television program NOVA arrived on the HMS campus to begin shooting what would become 700 hours of footage of seven first-year students. The resulting documentary series—“Can We Make A Better Doctor?”—aired in 1988 and portrayed the stress, drama, and rewards of medical school. Subsequent episodes detailed the doctors’ residencies and early years of practice.

This spring, a two-part installment called Doctors’ Diaries catches up with the physicians for an update that is, at times, poignant: One doctor no longer sees patients; others have faced challenges with their health or personal relationships. Still, these alumni have few regrets. “In my years of practice, I have seen all the ranges of extreme tragedy, extreme joy,” says Tom Tarter ’91 of his experience. “I can’t think of anything that has grounded me so much in my life as being a doctor.”

To learn more, visit www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors.