Seattle Grace Hospital/Grey Sloan Memorial, but out of all of them, who can be considered the best doctor in Grey’s Anatomy? Medical drama is one of the most popular branches on TV, and while it has seen a bunch of successful TV shows, one of its most recent and biggest titles is Grey’s Anatomy, created by Shonda Rhimes. Grey’s Anatomy has been around since 2005, and even though its quality has decreased over the years, it’s still one of the most popular TV shows currently airing.
Like any other medical drama, Grey’s Anatomy follows the lives of surgical interns, residents, and attendings as they do their best to balance their personal and professional lives, which often overlap and make way for a lot of drama inside and outside the hospital. Leading the audience through all the drama is Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), who started her journey as an intern alongside fan-favorite characters, such as Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), Alex Karev (Justin Chambers), and Izzie Stevens (Katherine Heigl). Unfortunately, most of the show’s most beloved characters are now gone, and the hospital has seen some truly talented doctors come and go – and out of all of them, the one that’s widely regarded as the best was actually there many, many years before the events of Grey’s Anatomy: Ellis Grey.
Why Ellis Grey Is The Best Doctor In Grey’s Anatomy
Meredith Grey’s talents in the medical world come from her mother, Ellis Grey (Kate Burton), a world-famous surgeon. Ellis Grey, along with Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.), treated Seattle’s first AIDS patient in the 1980s, and during her surgical residency at Seattle Grace, she was put on the shortlist for the Harper Avery Award for the "Grey Method", an audacious laparoscopic technique to treat gallbladders. Ellis won the Harper Avery Award years later for the “Ellis Grey Procedure” (now the “Grey-Cerone Method”, acknowledging the contribution of her then-friend Marie Cerone). When Ellis and Meredith moved to Boston, she continued to be a pioneer in surgery and documented a significant aspect of her surgical training in videos and journals, and she wrote at least one book. Due to her achievements and legacy, Ellis Grey became a legend at Seattle Grace Hospital and continues to be regarded as one of its best doctors, and the overall best in Grey’s Anatomy.
However, if only counting those who have been active throughout Grey’s Anatomy, then the best doctor would be Richard Webber. He even proved to be so when, in the robotics lab, he took a course as a refresher and pitted himself against Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh), who is one of the best of her generation. To Cristina’s surprise, Webber completed the surgery with his eyes closed, explaining it was all “muscle memory”. What makes Richard Webber the best doctor in Grey’s Anatomy is not just his talents and achievements but also his patience and mentorship, as he's able to remain calm when working under pressure and has the patience to teach his attendings and residents, and among his mentees are Derek Shepherd and Addison Montgomery.
How Realistic Are Grey’s Anatomy Doctors?
Medical dramas are mostly dramas with a lot of inspiration from everything that happens in real-life hospitals, so it’s expected that TV shows from this branch won’t be realistic and accurate. However, according to different doctors who have shared their opinions, Grey’s Anatomy is not too far from reality. In an interview with PureWow, Dr. Kailey Remien and Dr. Gail Saltz explained that most of the cases shown in Grey’s Anatomy are medically accurate, but that’s mostly because the show doesn’t go deep into them, and reminded the audience that most aspects are dramatized for TV, though most of the they use are accurate. In the end, Grey’s Anatomy aims to entertain with a mix of drama and comedy, but it has to be noted that Rhimes and her team have done their best to keep it as medically accurate as possible.