Category: Weird/

If romantic fiction is any guide, any doctor looking for love would be advised to be an emergency room surgeon or deliver babies rather than practise colon resection or remove in-grown toenails.

So says Irish Psychiatrist Brendan Kelly, who has probed at length into the burgeoning literary field of medical romance.

In an offbeat letter published in Saturday’s Lancet, Kelly describes the typical plot structure and characterization ( the Lancet-reg required)

As for the storyline, novelists skirted such hazards as malpractice suits for removing the wrong kidney or infection by a hospital superbug.(too hum drum?)

Instead, they stuck to a tried-and-trusted formula of the doctor as a saviour in a white coat.

How does he do it? Is he reading these books while patients pour out their woes?