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 Rosa Blasi as Dr. Luisa "Lu" Magdalena Delgado, born November 18, 1970. Delgado runs the free clinic (first the South Philly Health Clinic and, since the pilot, the Rittenhouse Health Center), and hosts a support group. Both as a friend and a doctor to many lower-class patients, Lu regularly comes face-to-face with bitterly ironic situations involving the difficulties of the lower class with government, debt, drug abuse, and exploitation. Her character exhibits a perennial cleverness which allows her to wheedle or persuade positive outcomes from seemingly hopeless cases of victimization. After her mother died of breast cancer when she was ten years-old, she was raised by her grandmother, Isabel Santana, who now lives in Puerto Rico. Lu has a son, Marc, who she had when she was 16 and raised alone. Until recently, Delgado has had no luck with a relationship. Her first boyfriend, Jack (Jeffrey D. Sams) a construction worker, dumped