Nichole Faina on Pittwire
PITTSBURGH, PA (PTTP) — Sylvia Owusu-Ansah is the Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine in the School of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She also works as the medical director of prehospital and EMS at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
One of her colleagues heard of a unique opportunity and presented it to Owusu-Ansah. She took this position as one of the medical advisors for “The Pitt,” a hit medical drama set in Pittsburgh and streams on HBO Max.
She was asked to comment on emergency medicine health care and was asked what she wanted to see on a medical drama series that she feels is important and has not yet been seen. She talks about how people in this field have a hard time when it comes to the lack of accuracy in some of the medical dramas. The first episode dropped in January of this year and she says that her mind was blown because so much of what she talked about was just in the first episode. She feels very passionately that you can’t talk about medicine in Pittsburgh without talking about the Freedom House Ambulance Service, which was the first EMS that started in Pittsburgh. They saw her passion and took that into consideration and even made part of episode eight dedicated to Freedom House.
She talks so highly of her experience and says she never imagined just how amazing this show would do, considering they were just starting out when she joined the crew. She mentions how this show is a way to have people see what health care providers do every day. It shines a light on what they do. She sees it as a way of giving back to them. In this profession, she talks about how they touch lives, but not to the extent that media does. Media, in this way, allows for these messages to reach millions of people in a shorter amount of time. She feels that they have done an amazing job getting the right people and respecting their advice to make the show as accurate and realistic as possible. She talks about the success of this show being because, “they use the village to create this phenomenal piece of art.”
For more information on “The Pitt” and Sylvia Owusu-Ansah’s experience, check out https://www.pittwire.pitt.edu/pittwire/features-articles/2025/01/15/hbo-max-the-pitt-sylvia-owusu-ansah