 Sector General is a gigantic multi @-@ species hospital space station founded as a peace @-@ promoting project by two heroes from opposite sides of humanity 's first full interstellar war . The hospital accommodates patients and staff from dozens of species , with different environmental requirements , behaviors and ailments , but many of the stories feature types of patient that the builders did not anticipate . Initially most of the stories center round the career of Doctor Conway , who rises from junior surgeon to the top level , Senior Diagnostician . In the fourth book the Galactic Federation decides that the emergency service which the hospital offers to victims of space accidents and planetary catastrophes is its most effective means of making peaceful contact with new spacefaring species , which allows the series to expand its range of plots , characters and locations . 
