Biomedical and patient-centred discourse on the basis of Polish medical TV series Medics (Lekarze)

The aim of this paper is to draw attention to the potential didactic value of medical series in the context of patient-centred and biomedical approaches to medical practice, as well as to the way they are represented in language. We shall argue that these two paradigms dictate given modes of reasoning as to, for example, what health/ disease is and the patient-doctor role relationship. The biomedical model establishes disease as a malfunction of the body (which can be restored) and the patient as a passive recipient of treatment. By contrast, patient- centred medicine advocates a holistic approach to wellness by taking into consideration psychosocial aspects. Having these two models in mind and by adopting a social-constructivist approach to language, it is possible to analyse communication in a particular (pop)cultural text and examine the message from the perspective of mediated content about broadly understood health. The paper is organised as follows: it starts with a discussion of the evolution of medical TV series and a systematic review of studies dealing with their pedagogic role. Next it provides the analysis of two seasons of the Polish medical series Medics (Pol. Lekarze), giving special attention to the holistic presentation of the patient found in this multimodal media text.