Awareness of Freedom House Ambulance Service, historically overlooked, surged after ‘The Pitt’

After an episode of the popular TV medical drama “The Pitt” included a character from Freedom House Ambulance Service—the nation’s first emergency medical service, which was staffed entirely by African Americans—awareness of these long-overlooked pioneers in prehospital care surged. That’s according to a first-of-its-kind study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and published in American Journal of Health Promotion.

The findings show that a single television storyline can quickly spread knowledge and spark conversations about an important public health history topic, said Beth L. Hoffman, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor of behavioral and community health sciences at Pitt Public Health and the study’s first and corresponding author. “Entertainment media can play a meaningful role in educating the public and encouraging people to learn more, including about topics like health equity and systemic racism.”

In a Season 1 episode of “The Pitt” titled “2:00 P.M.,” Willie Alexander, an 81-year-old who comes to the emergency department with a glitching pacemaker, comments on his own case in accurate medical-speak as he drifts in and out of consciousness. The team later learns that, as a young man, Willie was a member of Freedom House, which began in Pittsburgh’s Hill District neighborhood in 1967. Despite its success, the service shut down just eight years later as the city took over and installed a new, predominantly white staff, Willie explains, and the foundational contributions of Freedom House were largely forgotten.

In February 2025, Pitt Public Health hosted a screening of the episode and a panel discussion with six original, real-life members of Freedom House: Darnela Wilson, Larry Underwood, Chief John Moon, George McCary III, Bill Raynovich and David Lindell. The strong reactions of attendees sparked the idea for the study.

“People were captivated. They kept saying, “I can’t believe this is the first time I’m hearing about this,” and there was a lot of frustration,” Hoffman said.

Study co-author Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, M.D., MPH, serves as a medical consultant for “The Pitt” and originally brought the story of Freedom House to the attention of the writing team.

“For me, as a person of color, the importance of sharing their story has personal significance. We are underrepresented in health care, and there is an enormous sense of pride knowing that somebody who looked like me started this,” said Owusu-Ansah, EMS medical director of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Pitt.

The study is the first to explore the impact of a health storyline onscreen through analysis of both quantitative Google Trends data and qualitative Reddit posts and comments. “Social media data let us see how people are learning and discussing shows in real time, similar to how people used to gather around a water cooler,” Hoffman said.

In examining activity before and after the episode’s airing, the team found that Google searches for “Freedom House” rose 170% the day after the show’s original airing on Feb. 20, 2025, and stayed higher than normal for about a week. In an analysis of 196 relevant Reddit posts, more than a third shared content about Freedom House, while many others expressed emotional reactions or surprise at not having known about Freedom House before watching the show. Audiences were eager to fill in gaps by sharing historical context, asking questions and reflecting on the story’s significance.

“When a storyline is done well and done with expert input, it can have a big impact, even when it’s on screen very briefly,” Hoffman said.

Other authors on the study were Ore Fawole, B.S., B.A., and Kate Leshniowsky, both of Pitt.

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