M&Ms: Not Just Chocolate Candies
Welcome to our new blog. Let's get started, shall we...
One of the things I love about medical shows is their ability to introduce hospital vernacular with such spunk and conviction that they instantly penetrate the pop culture landscape. Grey's Anatomy perfected this art with last season's superb post-Super Bowl episode, "Code Black" (remember the one with Meredith's hand holding a bomb in some poor guy's chest?). That episode sent viewers flocking to the internet to find out what these hospital codes mean. Code Black=Bomb. Code Blue=Heart Attack.
In last night's episode, Grey's introduced a new phrase: M&M. This is a monthly meeting of the entire medical staff to discuss the details of patients who died. The interns are excited to be invited to their first M&M -- they even brought snacks! According to a sign posted on the door, M&M stands for "Morbidity and Mortality" (I had to pause my TiVo).
So is this M&M thing for real? Yep. Hospitals and medical organizations produce Morbidity and Mortality reports all the time. The CDC posts a weekly Morbidity and Mortality online. There's even a podcast. This government health site posts a monthly report chronicling the previous month's top cases, interesting stuff such as this: A woman admitted for heart and respiratory failure is mistakenly given penicillamine (a chelating agent) rather than penicillin (an antibiotic). Yikes.
Hospitals, like fictional Seattle Grace, host regular M&M conferences too. At Stanford University Medical Center, urology students attend Morbidity and Mortality Rounds every third Monday at 7:15 AM. I'm guessing it's not quite as dramatic as last night's Grey's Anatomy.
One of the things I love about medical shows is their ability to introduce hospital vernacular with such spunk and conviction that they instantly penetrate the pop culture landscape. Grey's Anatomy perfected this art with last season's superb post-Super Bowl episode, "Code Black" (remember the one with Meredith's hand holding a bomb in some poor guy's chest?). That episode sent viewers flocking to the internet to find out what these hospital codes mean. Code Black=Bomb. Code Blue=Heart Attack.
In last night's episode, Grey's introduced a new phrase: M&M. This is a monthly meeting of the entire medical staff to discuss the details of patients who died. The interns are excited to be invited to their first M&M -- they even brought snacks! According to a sign posted on the door, M&M stands for "Morbidity and Mortality" (I had to pause my TiVo).
So is this M&M thing for real? Yep. Hospitals and medical organizations produce Morbidity and Mortality reports all the time. The CDC posts a weekly Morbidity and Mortality online. There's even a podcast. This government health site posts a monthly report chronicling the previous month's top cases, interesting stuff such as this: A woman admitted for heart and respiratory failure is mistakenly given penicillamine (a chelating agent) rather than penicillin (an antibiotic). Yikes.
Hospitals, like fictional Seattle Grace, host regular M&M conferences too. At Stanford University Medical Center, urology students attend Morbidity and Mortality Rounds every third Monday at 7:15 AM. I'm guessing it's not quite as dramatic as last night's Grey's Anatomy.
3 Comments:
Grey's Anatomy didn't introduce M&M to the masses. ER has been showing M&M's for years, going way back to the first few seasons.
But keep up the great work! This blog is a great idea!
Yatesy,
Thanks for the feedback! Someone else mentioned to me that there have been M&Ms on Scrubs as well. I guess I missed those episodes! It does seem like Grey's Anatomy puts a lot more emphasis on these clever medical phrases so they have a bigger shot of entering the pop culture lexicon.
Glad you enjoy the blog!
Hey, I love reading these TV Checkups. They should have their own area on the site and you should be able to look them up by show.
I love Grey's Anatomy and would read anything you have to say on its material (they really have to birth dead babies, what that must feel like for those involved, etc.), but I don't like the intensity of shows like ER or House.
People should just be able to click on your comments for each show. I'm trying to go back and read all Greys' comments, but can't seem to find any thread that leads me to the rest of your comments. Happened on M&M because I thought it might be funny, forgot it'd been on my show.
Thanks.
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