Doctors says ‘The Pitt’ reflects the gritty realities of medicine today : NPR
From left: Noah Wyle plays Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, the primary attending physician, and Fiona Dourif plays Dr. Cassie McKay, a third-year resident, in a fictional Pittsburgh emergency department in the HBO Max series. The Pitt.
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The first five minutes of the new season of The Pitt instantly capture the state of medicine in the mid-2020s: a hectic emergency room waiting room; a sign warning that aggressive behavior will not be tolerated; a memorial plaque for victims of a mass shooting; and a patient with large Ziploc bags filled to the brim with various supplements and homeopathic remedies.
The scenes in the new installment seem almost too recognizable for many doctors.
The return of the critically acclaimed medical drama to streaming on HBO Max offers viewers a surprisingly realistic view of how doctors practice medicine in an era of political division, institutional distrust and the corporatization of healthcare.
Each season covers a day in the kinetic, understaffed emergency department of a fictional Pittsburgh hospital, with each episode spanning a single hour of a 15-hour shift. This means there’s no time for the romantic plotlines or far-fetched plots that usually dominate medical dramas.
Instead, the fast-paced show takes viewers into the real world of emergencies, complete with a barrage of medical jargon and the daily struggles of those on the front lines of America’s healthcare system. It’s a microcosm of medicine – and of a fragmented United States.
Many doctors and medical professionals have praised the show’s first season, and emergency room doctors even invited the show’s star, Noah Wyle, to their annual conference in September.
So what do the doctors think of the new season? As a medical student myself, I enjoyed the study of the “July effect” – the long-held belief that the quality of care declines in July when junior doctors begin their residencies – renamed “first week of July syndrome” by one of the characters.
This insider’s nod sets the tone for a season that Dr. Alok Patel, a pediatrician at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health, says is relevant. Patel, who co-hosts the show’s companion podcast, watched the first nine episodes of the new installment and spoke to NPR about his first impressions.
For me, as a medical student, the opening scenes of the new season are quite striking and resemble what modern emergency medicine looks like. From your point of view, how accurate is it?
I will say up front, when it comes to capturing the full essence of healthcare practice — the ups, downs and frustrations — The Pitt is by far the most medically accurate series that, in my opinion, has ever been created. And I’m not the only one to share this opinion. I hear this often from my colleagues.
OK, but is every shift really that chaotic?
I mean, obviously, it’s television. And I know a lot of emergency doctors who watch the show and say, “Hey, it’s really good, but not every department is that crazy.” I’m like, ‘Come on, relax. It’s TV. You need to take a little liberties.’
As in his last season, The Pitt highlights the real – sometimes annoying – bureaucratic burdens that doctors face and that often get in the way of good medicine. How does this resonate with real doctors?
There are so many topics that affect patient care that are not glorified. And so The Pitt did this really clever job of inserting these topics with the right characters and relevant storylines. I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s a pretty relevant issue in season two with medical bills.
RIGHT. Confidence seems to take center stage at times this season – almost as a character itself – which seems appropriate for this moment as many Americans face steep increases in costs. But these mundane – yet heartbreaking – moments don’t usually turn into medical dramas, do they?
I guarantee when people see this, they will nod their heads because they know someone who has been hit with a huge hospital bill.
If you want to tell the story of an emergency department run by compassionate healthcare workers who do everything they can for patients, you need to make sure you put all healthcare in there.
As the characters juggle multiple patients each hour, a familiar motif returns: medical providers struggling with heavy workloads outside of work.
Yes, the reality is that if you have a very busy job and things are going on in your personal life, the line between personal and professional life becomes blurred and people have moments.
The Pitt this highlights that and shows that doctors are real people. Nurses are real human beings. And sometimes things happen and it spills over into the workplace. It’s time to step back and not only recognize it, but appreciate what people are facing.
2025 was another difficult year for doctors. Many had to continue fight against misinformation while simultaneously practicing medicine. How does medical misinformation fit into season two?
I wouldn’t say it’s just a distrust of medicine. I mean, this theme definitely shows up in The Pittbut people are also just plain confused. They don’t know where to find their information. They don’t know who to trust. They don’t know what the right decision is.
There’s a specific scene in season two that, again, isn’t spoiled, but involves someone getting their information from social media. And this is again a very real theme.
In recent years, physical and verbal violence against healthcare workers has increased. resurrectedfueling mental health struggles among providers. The Pitt was praised for diving into this reality. Is it coming back this season?
The new season of The Pitt There is still some of this tension between patients and healthcare professionals – and sometimes it is completely projected or misdirected. People get frustrated, they get upset when they can’t see a doctor in time and they may act out.
Characters who are physically attacked in The Pitt just take it off. This whole idea of having to suppress this aggression and then the frustration with the lack of protection for health care workers, it’s a very real problem.
A new attending physician, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, joins the cast this season. Sepideh Moafi plays her, and she works closely with veteran attending physician Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, played by Noah Wyle. What are your – and Robby’s – first impressions of her?
From the first episode, people meet this brilliant firecracker. Dr. Al-Hashimi, against Dr. Robby, represents almost two generations of treating physicians. They’re almost on opposite sides of the coin, and there’s a little conflict.
Sepideh Moafi, fourth from left, as Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi, the new attending physician, huddles with her team around a patient at a fictional Pittsburgh teaching hospital in the HBO Max series The Pitt.
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Part of this conflict lies in his lucid view of artificial intelligence and its role in medicine. And she thinks AI can help doctors document what happens to patients – also called mapping – right?
Yes, Dr. Al-Hashimi is an advocate for AI tools in the ER because, I swear to God, they make healthcare workers’ lives more efficient. In particular, they speed up the creation of graphics, a theme that appears in the second season.
But then Dr. Robby gives a very interesting rebuttal to the widespread use of AI. The problem is, if we put AI tools everywhere, then all of a sudden the financial arm of the healthcare system will say, “Cool, now you can double the number of patients you see.” We won’t give you any more resources, but with these AI tools you can generate more money for the system. »
The new installment also continues to address the increasing corporatization of medicine. During the first season, we saw how Dr. Robby and his team were pushed to see more patients.
Yes, it really helps the audience understand the type of stressors people face while they’re just trying to take care of their patients.
In the first season, when Dr. Robby had discussions with the hospital administrator, the doctors were immediately convinced because it was a very significant point of frustration – such a huge obstacle.
There are so many other themes explored this season. What else should viewers expect?
I’m really looking forward to viewers delving into the character development. This reflects so much of how things actually happen in residence. So much happens between your first and second year of residency, not only in terms of medical skills, but also in terms of your development as a person.
I think what’s also really fascinating is that The Pitt has life lessons buried in every episode. Sometimes you catch it immediately, sometimes it’s at the end, sometimes you catch it when you watch it again.
But that’s a big part of humanity because humanity isn’t put on hold when you get sick – you just go to the hospital with your whole being. So every episode – every patient scenario – has a lesson to learn.
Michal Ruprecht is a member of Stanford Global Health Media and a fourth-year medical student.
