Diagnosis: A New Way to Crack the Case
The 2019 Netflix series Diagnoses is bringing truly astounding medical mysteries to life. The woman behind the series, Dr. Lisa Sanders, is an associate professor at Yale who dives deep into the world of unsolvable cases. She has been writing a column about unique medical cases for the New York Times Magazine since 2002. With the help of The New York Times, she finally decided to bring this column to the big screen, but with a fascinating twist. Using the method of crowd wisdom, she presented the public with a case, offering a space at the bottom for the readers opinion or feedback. By doing this, she hoped to receive opinions or feedback to help aid her in reaching a diagnosis. Although she didn't expect that within hours she would have hundreds of replies, and within weeks she would have thousands.
When I first came across this series I was extremely excited because I love to binge-watch documentary series, being a Netflix addict and all. I was especially drawn to this series because of the medical aspect. I've seen almost every television series related to the medical field from Grey’s Anatomy to Nurse Jackie. Even after only viewing the first episode of Diagnosis, I knew this was a well-crafted series. You can tell that Dr. Sanders chose specific cases that would work well with crowdsourcing instead of just any random case. This is an important aspect that made it possible for her column to be turned into a television series people would want to watch. She also follows the cases for many months to create each episode, and it shows.
The only complaint I have about this series is the disappointment when there is no diagnosis. You get all excited for the world to come together to help this one person who has been looking for answers, but then there is no answer. Very few cases actually get a definite diagnosis, but most, if not all, cases get a lot more information to help them move forward to possibly get a diagnosis in the future. It also helps the families and the patient find support from those who might be experiencing something similar. Every episode seems to broadcast a whole new story, and I'm excited to see what stories the future seasons will tell.