Medical fiction

Medical fiction is fiction whose events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment. It is highly prevalent on television, especially as medical dramas, as well as in novels.

The depiction of medical institutions and their staff has been considered important both for the influence it has on the perception of their real counterparts, and the role it can play in medical education.^[1][2][3] Through their personal or collective experiences with specific diseases, medical institutions, and health professionals, the audience can relate to the situations depicted in medical fiction, contributing to the success of the genre. This familiarity with the subject matter requires a degree of realism in order "to avoid misinterpretations or false ideas about the medical institutional or professional practice".^[1][4]

Medical fiction also allows "the illustration and discussion of ethical dilemmas that are frequently not raised for reasons of discretion, embarrassment, or fear of retribution" in the scientific community.^[5]

The Babyland General Hospital is a different type of fiction in the form of an actual building, where the procedure of birth and adoption is played out with Cabbage Patch Kids dolls in a converted former hospital.^[6][7][8]

Alternatively, the term may refer to Narrative Medicine—stories written by medical professionals to help foster empathy and humanize the practice of medicine.^[9]