Can We Make a Better Doctor? and So You Want To Be a Doctor?

Can We Make a Better Doctor? and So You Want To Be a Doctor?

The first and second of an ongoing series about how we educate our doctors. A portrait of six aspiring doctors as they go through their medical training. Broadcast nationally by PBS on NOVA.
"One of the most ambitious and engrossing projects ever attempted.... The show masterfully edits its material into an engrossing and detailed whole, punctuated by interviews with the students.... It puts the process of becoming a doctor in a sharp human context. Like some chapter in an unfolding drama, we can watch and enjoy this remarkable show while eagerly anticipating its next chapter."

Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune

 "[The] program does well one of the things that television documentaries can do best...it captures the shakiness of bright young people trying to cope with too much new information and too many unsettling experiences.... It is the next best thing to going to medical school...the camera stays close and catches revealing moments.... It's enough to give patients a new perspective on their doctors."

Walter Goodman, The New York Times

"[It] not only enlightens us about how tough medical school is, but profiles the young students so we eventually feel we know them - and root for them to make it. The camera never flinches (although you may), whether the subject is cut-up cadavers or sexually transmitted diseases. But just as many scenes show us that a sense of humor is imperative for making it through those four years."

John Voorhees, Seattle Times

 "What makes it memorable are the qualities of the seven medical students NOVA has been tracking since they entered Harvard Medical School in 1987.... Doctor conveys a sense of intimacy made possible by the long-term cooperation of the students. Their clarity and candor - as they tentatively explore a cadaver, queasily take blood for the first time (each other's) and self-effacingly but gently conduct their first patient interviews and examinations - have a welcome freshness."

John Koch, Boston Globe