The life of a doctor at the country's oldest hospital, now on television

It all started with the notebooks.

When Eric Manheimer, MD, arrived at Bellevue Hospital in New York in 1997 as the new Chief Medical Officer, "One of the things I did was walk with a notebook and a take notes on everything I've seen. " Manheimer explained during a telephone interview to which a PR person was present. "I'm still doing it so far.I was very interested in the patients who came here and their stories – why they were in the hospital and what was driving him."

Outside the hospital, a lot of political things were going on. For example, the attack of September 11, 2001 against the World Trade Center occurred a few years after the arrival of Manheimer. "So I combined in the notebooks the patients I saw, the political problems with the City Hall and what was happening internationally … I ended up with 150 notebooks when I I sat down to write a book in 2011. "

In the book, Manheimer said, "I wanted to tell the social and political history that reigned in this country, but I wanted to tell the stories of the patients who could tell it … So, I went through the notebooks and chose 12 patients who illustrated 12 important themes. "

Twelve was a kind of arbitrary number, continued Manheimer, who left Bellevue in 2012 and is now a clinical professor at New York University. "Twenty looked too much and five was too small." He wanted to further discuss issues such as addiction, incarceration and the obesity epidemic. "I chose patients that I could approach, go home, get to know them, I found extremely cooperative people, which allowed me to talk to them in depth."

Eric Manheimer, MD (Photo credit: Virginia Sherwood / NBC)

The origins of patients are important

The book of Manheimer, Twelve patients: life and death at Bellevue Hospital, published in 2012, a few years before the discussions on "social determinants of health" became popular. "To understand patients and where they come from, you need a broader goal than seeing them in a clinical practice," he said. "You need to know more about where they come from and what's going on [in their lives]; the context is missing. It's too narrow, too thin, too airless. So my interest in these topics really helped me to get a much deeper telescope to understand the patients. "

In the average consultation room, "with only you and the patient, you do not see their family, where they live, their relatives, their friends … and you miss a lot of essential information about what led the patient to the office, "continued Manheimer." A very significant amount of hospitalizations is related to social determinants [which are] is not part of the interview. I found this really unsatisfactory when trying to understand the patient and his environment. "

Manheimer had no idea what was going to follow – the interest of television networks. "One day, my literary agent phoned me and said," Eric, one of the networks is interested in buying the book. "So the first thing we did was to make sure that a Hollywood agent" worked with the literary agent.

Eventually, four networks were interested in making the book in a television show, "but I chose NBC because I thought they enjoyed the kind of story I wanted to tell, which included the social determinants as well as interesting medical histories, "he said. "Live in this country every day [means] live with the problem of immigration and a massive epidemic of opioids [as well as] important problems in the delivery system [with] costs that are not sustainable … This seriously affects our entire society. "The series developed by NBC calls" New Amsterdam ", a reference to the original name of the city of New York.

Put the care in the back

The protagonist of the series, Max Goodwin, "brings back care to medicine." What has been squeezed out of medicine – which becomes a commercialized business and a trivialized business – is the benevolent part … The profession suffers tremendously because of that, so what he's changing is bringing in doctors and patients [making it a place] where to take care first. "

In the first episode, aired at 10 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday (September 25, 2018), Goodwin himself is diagnosed with cancer. "I was diagnosed with [squamous cell throat] there are a number of years of cancer and has undergone a rigorous and difficult treatment; I had a difficult course [of illness] with a lot of complications and it has changed a lot, "said Manheimer, who was diagnosed with melanoma a year after being cured of throat cancer and was also treated." There will be a lot of similarities [with my own situation]. "

"Essentially, I've uploaded my experiences as a physician administrator, leader and marketing manager in this environment to the editorial team," added Manheimer, also author of the series. . NBC has a team of 10 writers for the California series, with a senior screenwriter for an episode that typically takes place in New York.

Pilot episode "New Amsterdam". In the photo: (l-r) Ryan Eggold as Dr. Max Goodwin, Jason Kisare as Alain. (Photo credit: Francisco Roman / NBC)

Will that sound?

Manheimer had just returned from shooting an episode at the Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, one of three filming locations in the series. "We filmed a wonderful scene and there were about 180 people, from actors to experts," he said. "It was a hive of activity, with filmmakers, producers, and cameramen, and it takes a lot of effort to make that happen and to make it come alive."

Bellevue is the oldest hospital in the country, dating back to 1736. Although it is best known for its psychiatric ward – which includes patients of many mother tongues as well as prisoners from Rikers Island – it also possesses an obstetric service, a pediatric ward. and other hospital services (Manheimer noted that two of his own grandchildren were born in Bellevue). However, since the hospital is very busy, the crew can only film scenes at Bellevue on weekends. The producers in the series also use Kings County hospital units, where they can breed. specialized sets such as an intensive care unit.

The goal is that people "see [the show] and to make sure they are in agreement with them and to understand that these are major social problems, "he said." We do not have solutions to these problems but we want to put them on Table. This is not a "Sherlock Holmes" about a tricky case [or a] doctor with a psychiatric illness capable of shooting rabbits from a hat. It's about dealing with complex social situations and taking care of people in that environment. "

Manheimer said he hoped his fellow doctors would be interested in the series. "I think a lot of things will resonate with them, and I would very much like to know what their thoughts are," he said. "There are many more problems to solve with medicine than any doctor, and I want to put them on the table … I'm curious to see how that sounds with them."

2018-09-25T17: 30: 00-0400