October 26, 2007 8:33 a.m. EST
Ishita Sukhadwala - AHN News Writer
Dublin, Ireland (AHN) -
Irish physician Dr. Brendan Kelly conducted a tongue-in-cheek study, the findings of which he published in the medical journal Lancet.
Dr. Kelly randomly selected 20 medical romance novels and found that majority leaned towards "brilliant, tall, muscular, male doctors with chiselled features, working in emergency medicine" who were "commonly of Mediterranean origin and had personal tragedies in their pasts", according to The Associated Press (AP).
The female protagonists - mainly working in primary care, obstetrics/neonatology, surgery or emergency medicine - were "skilled, beautiful and determined but still compassionate."
Karin Stoecker, editorial director at Harlequin Mills and Boon, said: "We see exactly the same on televised medical dramas. In these kinds of professions, there is the need to remain emotionally distant, which spills over into private lives - there's nothing more thrilling than a damaged hero", reports BBC News.
Hospital romance is one of the fastest growing sub-genres in romantic fiction. According to the Romance Writers of America, it generates $1.2billion in annual sales and accounts for 39 percent of all fiction sold in the U.S, AP reports.
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