seeing goal, i believe everybody marcus wellby said. should we rely on what we hear on the fictional shows? >> yes and no. i've been writing a column for seven years looking for tv accuracy and i love to analyze "house." the first thing you mentioned, you mentioned marcus wellby. he's cantankerous, irritable, and reminds people your own doctor may be that way but even if they are, they may be giving you the right information. so don't write them off because they are a little brusk. the second thing is he has a drug problem. that reminds you doctors are real people too. and they can bring up diagnoses people don't think of. people can advocate for themselves and gives a lot of information. and i noticed over the eight years it got better and better. but what is wrong with the show is that the drama takes over and a lot of times you are left feeling that this rare disease could really be happening to you, and it probably won't be. i have one i wrote about where somebody swallowed a toothpick and couldn't find it on any scan and made holes

the stethoscopes work a lot better these days to pick on the thing that i mentioned that marcus wellby had. but also, it's medical technique, and i think that's part of technology, too.by had. but also, it's medical technique, and i think that's part of technology, too. it's knowing how to do something, even if the basic materials are the same as they were 20 years ago, but you now know how to do it. that is an advance in technology. and all of that adds to both the supply of services that are available to treat disease, and diagnose disease, and also the demand for such diagnoses and treatments. now, one of the things that you'll see in the literature, which i've never particularly found useful. i'm an old labor economist at heart, but technology, you'll see these studies that try to parse out how much of cost is accountable for by various kinds of factors. including technology. and technology is that -- is that one thing that can't be directly measured. although i argue that the other factors that people usually point to aren't really all that measurable, either. everybody admits the