In the episode Occam's Razor, House utters this little gem of snarkdom...

There is obviously such thing as a Board Certified Diagnostician (House seems to not balk at adding puns to his list of snarky jokes), but my question is, what exactly do they do?
Is a certified diagnostician just a doctor like a GP? Or a physician? Someone specialised in a certain field?
This is probably something very basic either in the medical profession or in the US, so excuse me for potentially stating the obvious.

Diagnostics, as a formal specialty, is made-up. There is no board certification for being a "diagnostician."

All physicians diagnose, of course, and when you're talking very specifically about the art of diagnosis, that's when you'll hear terms like "diagnostics" and "the diagnostician." I could see courses in medical school titled "diagnostics" (to go with things like "pharmacology", "gross anatomy", and "The Art of Breaking Bad News.")

But as its own specialty? Nope.

I think in layterms it's the specialty of I'mSmarterThanYou. :P

:D Runawayhouse!

Thanks for your post, Aud. (and your medical knowledge).
To clarify a misunderstanding, in Australia we call a 'normal' (for lack of a better word) doctor a GP or General Practitioner. Basically the dude that you rock up to if you have a cold, or need a doctor's certificate because you threw up on the first day of your exams. In America this is known as a physician, which is where my misunderstanding arose.
In Australia a physician is a specialist in internal medicine, in other words someone who has become a doctor and specialised in this field. In Britain this strand of medicine is known as general medicine or general (internal) medicine.
I wanted to know if House was a Physician, in the antipodean sense of the word. You probably all know this, but I'll continue anyway. Yes, he is.

Docs in America have to do three years of undergraduate study at uni before they start med. Whoa! I see what you meant in your blog about starting them young in Australia, Aud. (Love it). Most Unis that I can think of off the top of my head in Australia will start medicine basically straight out of high school. However, the University Of Sydney, Australia's oldest University, stipulates that you must do an undergraduate degree before starting medicine.
There's no Board Certification for Diagnostics as such, I mean, not one that I can find - so although diagnostics does not seem to be a certifiable branch of medicine you could stretch to believe that there is some kind of certifying board, because you can find a certifying board for just about everything else on the internet. So, it's make believe with a solid foundation of fact, I just needed to clarify a few things.
Cheers. Enjoy the read.

ha! I was just being flippant about starting 'em young in Australia.

In the US, the use of the word "physician" isn't as precise; surgeons sometimes get called "physicians."

Actually, it's usually four, though a few grinds and wunderkinder might be able to complete four years of coursework in three years.

So after university, then it's four years of medical school and then a residency. The residency lasts from three to five years depending on if you've chosen to go into medicine or surgery. After that you can either go into general practice or specialize further by completing a fellowship, which lasts two to three years.

Foreman lays it all out in Detox:

although I would quibble that he would more likely have three years of residency and another three of subspecialty training -- in his case, neurology. But the math comes out the same: he's still talking instead of digging. :)

Thanks Auditrix. :)
I guess if I ever have a question about the hierachy of Doctors in America, I'll send it to you...
Actually, I'll probably post it there and then answer the question myself. Oh well. B)