Who's the Most Handsome Doc of All?

Well, guess I won't be in the 2007 Hottest Doctors calendar. That, apparently, will be filled up with surgeons.

Every year the British Medical Journal (a very credible medical journal on most days but we all need to have fun sometimes) puts out an issue of crazy, but true, medical studies. And this year's issue had quite the doctor doozy.

According to the Spanish researchers, male surgeons are better looking than your average male doctor.

They even looked at TV docs like Dr. Shepherd (a neurosurgeon) -- aka "McDreamy" -- on Grey's Anatomy and Dr. House (on House). They found TV docs are the better looking than real-life docs regardless of their medical specialty. Shocker, huh?

I'm sure TV mailmen are better looking than your favorite postal worker, too. By the way, they didn't include female physicians because there weren't enough at their hospital.

So why did they do this study? I have no idea, but I had a great time reading it even though it didn't do a lot to build up my self-esteem.

Is it true? Well, maybe, but I'm not going to betray my internal medicine colleagues and vouch for their findings. I'll be thrown out of the club.

The researchers did have some quite interesting (or should I say humorous) theories as to why surgeons are better looking.

One possibility is our genes. It seems I may not be genetically programmed to be the most handsome doc or a doc that enjoys standing around a patient in the operating room for hours at a time. But thank goodness someone is.

The higher oxygen level in the OR (as opposed to the medical floor where other docs hang out) might also explain the surgeons' pretty tendencies. Or maybe the surgical masks are an effective anti-aging device (How? Who knows, but since wrinkle creams don't seem to work, might as well slap on a surgical mask and give it a shot).

Surgeons were also generally taller, which helps them tower over others in the operating room, allowing them to exert their dominance on their turf.

It seems that we ugly internists are weighted down with stethoscopes around our necks, causing us to stoop over and appear shorter. And then there's our apparent need to endlessly update our knowledge to stay up to date with the latest medical thinking. This endless reading of medical journals seems to grind us down even further.

Does that mean we're smarter? If surgeons get to be prettier, at least give us that.

So who tops your list of the hottest docs? "McSteamy" Dr. Sloan on Grey's, Dr. Kovac on ER, another TV doc, or your own personal physician? Let us know!

Related Topics:

Handsome Doctors in the Operating Room

Old Surgeons Still Good -- If Busy

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