In 2002, a friend of hers working at The New York Times sparked a conversation about what doctors could provide in a literature perspective. This conversation led to an idea, and from this idea Sanders started writing a column for The New York Times called Diagnosis. The column would highlight medical mysteries that she would encounter within her own patients as well as her colleagues, she would set up the stories as a mystery case revealing the diagnosis within the following week's column.[4] The column then became inspiration for the 2004 TV series House M.D., where Sanders became a medical consultant for the show.