Originally Posted by Oakvillian

Well, yes, but if that's your burden of proof then every quirky investigator of any flavour is a rip off of all the others. Columbo, Quincy, Magnum, any of the CSI people leaping to conclusions, that guy in the Navy police one with the punk lab assistant (and a quirky British sidekick - oh, the irony...), hell, even Morse or good old Eddie Shoestring would fall into that category. It's been done many times before House in a medical setting too (though more often in a path lab or morgue than in a diagnostic department). Are they all actually rip-offs of Arthur Conan Doyle's original Holmes?

Your Brit thing is a red herring, of course - House was not a Brit, perhaps you're confusing the character with the actor. Hugh Laurie's accent apparently fooled many Americans to the extent that they were surprised by his normal speaking voice when he appeared on talk shows.