Disillusioned with the bureaucratic cruelty of traditional medicine, Patch enrolls at the Medical College of Virginia. He immediately clashes with Dean Walcott (played with perfect sternness by Bob Gunton), a man who believes medicine is a science of cold facts. Patch believes it is an art of love.
The most contentious change involved the character of Carin. In the film, Carin is a composite character, but her tragic fate in the movie was based on a real-life friend of Adams, who was a man. The real Patch Adams criticized the film for simplifying his life and for the tragic murder of the character, feeling it sensationalized the genuine struggles he faced in building the Gesundheit! Institute. patch adams 1998
Furthermore, the real Dr. Adams famously despised the marketing campaign, particularly the poster which showed Williams sitting on a gurney with his pants down. He felt it trivialized his life's work into a crude joke. Despite these criticisms, the film undeniably raised the profile of the real Patch Adams and his vision for free, community-based healthcare. The most contentious change involved the character of Carin