Strong Medicine is an American medical drama with a focus on feminist politics, health issues and class conflict that aired on the Lifetime network from 2000 to 2006. It was created and produced in part by Whoopi Goldberg, who made cameos on the series, and by Tammy Ader. It starred Rosa Blasi, Janine Turner, and Patricia Richardson. It was the highest-rated original drama on basic cable in 2001.

Overview

Strong Medicine brings together the worlds of two completely different doctors, Dr. Luisa "Lu" Delgado, and Dr. Dana Stowe. Lu is a single mother running a free clinic in the inner-city. Dana is a Harvard graduate and top female health specialist. The two come together when Dr. Lydia Emerson wants to combine Rittenhouse Hospital's practice with Lu's financially failing clinic to provide the best care for the patients of both doctors. The staff and its visitors tend to be racially, politically, and economically diverse. A core class/political duality in the episodes' storylines tend to be driven by comparisons and contrasts (and often cooperation) between liberal Delgado, and her fellow women's health practitioner across the lobby, who sees paying patients and generally has more conservative values. When Dr. Dana Stowe leaves, Lu's partners include Dr. Andy Campbell and Dr. Dylan West. The show often places the characters in ironic, soul-searching situations in which they are forced to question the solidity of their personal beliefs or else cause them to fight for what they believe in.

Episodes

Cast and characters

Main

Recurring

Broadcast and release

Reruns formerly airs on the American over-the-air network Start TV, and aired on GetTV on Mondays to Fridays starting on November 1, 2021. TeleXitos premiered the entire series on October 1, 2021, which will be dubbed in Spanish. On January 10, 2006, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Strong Medicine: The Complete First Season, a 5-disc set. As of April 2021, the first two seasons of the show are available to watch on the free ad-supported streaming service Tubi in the United States, but is no longer offered April 1, 2023. While the complete series is available to watch in Canada on CTV.ca's CTV Throwback hub.

Proposed First Response spinoff and international remake

Near the end of the 2004-2005 season, a special episode "First Response" aired, prominently featuring three new characters: Katie and Zack, both EMTs, and Dr. Vanessa Burke, head of the new Rittenhouse Trauma Center and adopted black sister of Katie. The TV Home website reports that this episode was meant as the pilot to a potential Strong Medicine spinoff series, Strong Medicine: First Response. Such a series would have been the first spin-off to an existing Lifetime original series. Lifetime did not order the new series into production after the ratings for the pilot were not what was expected. There was a Russian remake in 2012.