5 TV doctors to consult with on your next sick day

NBC’s New Amsterdam has an entire cast of TV doctors who care.

No matter how much they might put the “drama” in “medical drama” with their daily struggles, and regardless of how many tears they might make you cry, the medical team at New Amsterdam is exactly who you should want by your side when you’re sick. While some TV doctors (and their real-life counterparts) might fall short in this area, the “Dam Fam,” as they’ve been called, really embody what it means to provide medical care.

If we had to choose just one of the TV doctors from this series to include in our list, it would have to be Max Goodwin. As the hospital’s medical director, he has really made a difference with his approach to management. For every patient, in every crisis, no matter what the cost may be, he makes it a point to always ask one question: “How can I help?”

Because of Max’s leadership example, all the TV doctors on New Amsterdam attack problems by first considering how they can help; and it really makes a big difference. Patients who would otherwise be left to suffer are treated as human beings instead of collateral damage or budget line items; and people build real, human connections across the doctor-patient relationships, rather than everything remaining overly clinical.

While Max and the rest of the New Amsterdam physicians are fictional characters, “this series is based on the real stories that a New York City medical director, Dr. Eric Manheimer, knows well.” If some of the most compassionate TV doctors of all time are based, even loosely, on real people, that’s definitely good news for next time you’re not feeling like yourself.