Grey’s Anatomy: Why Meredith Could Win a Harper Avery (But Not Cristina)
Meredith won the prestigious Harper Avery Award, even though Christina was disqualified previously. Here’s why the titular surgeon deserved the win.
After Meredith won a Harper Avery Award in Grey’s Anatomy, some fans wondered, “did Cristina win the Harper Avery too?” Throughout the first 10 seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, Cristina proved herself to be the arguably better surgeon of the two — she was cutthroat and laser-focused on honing her skill. Being a surgeon was always Cristina’s top priority in Grey’s Anatomy, whereas Meredith’s career often took a backseat to her personal relationships — which is actually why Meredith ultimately deserved the award over her friend and colleague.
For doctors in the Grey’s Anatomy universe, the Harper Avery is the most prestigious award one can win. Created by Dr. Harper Avery, the award elevates surgeons who are already at the top of their field professionally, while also encouraging them to push their skills even further. The Harper Avery award also comes with a $500,000 grant. Although the Harper Avery Award, like all the doctors and hospital names in Grey’s Anatomy, is entirely fictional, it presents a very real and significant honor to those who receive it. There’s a lot of history surrounding Cristina and the accolade, but did Cristina win the Harper Avery?
Why Christina Was Disqualified From The Harper Avery Award
In Grey’s Anatomy season 14, Meredith wins the Harper Avery, setting her apart from fellow surgeon Christina Yang, who is nominated for the same award but fails to win it during Grey’s Anatomy season 10. Above the politics, both onscreen and off, Meredith deserves the Harper Avery because she excels in her career alongside, rather than instead of, her relationships. Her win is a testament to her growth as a person and a surgeon, and, more importantly, it marked a celebration of Grey’s Anatomy‘s overall growth and longevity. But there’s one very specific logistical reason why Meredith could win the Harper Avery when Christina couldn’t.
Because Grey’s Anatomy‘s Harper Avery award distinguishes dedicated, high-caliber surgeons, it makes perfect sense that Cristina is nominated for the award during season 10. Christina Yang’s nomination is a culminating moment for a character who has prioritized her career above everything for ten seasons. However, Christina isn’t able to qualify for the Harper Avery despite garnering the majority vote, mainly because Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital, where she works, is owned by the Harper Avery Foundation. A win for Cristina would thus be seen as a conflict of interest.
Why Meredith Deserved The Harper Avery Award
Because of Christina’s disqualification, Meredith’s Harper Avery win in Grey’s Anatomy season 14 seems impossible, as she also works at Grey Sloan Memorial Hospital. However, the Haper Avery Award is no longer quite the same by the time Meredith wins it, as Harper Avery himself has died. Amidst audience confusion surrounding Grey’s Anatomy season 14 episode 7, it was confirmed by showrunner Krista Vernoff on Twitter that,
“the Harper Avery Rule died with [Harper Avery].“
Christina and Meredith are both talented Grey’s Anatomy doctors, but even aside from this logistical difference, it makes more sense for Meredith to win such a prestigious award than Christina. During Grey’s Anatomy season 10, Meredith felt conflicted between her surgical career and her familial obligations. Cristina confirmed Meredith’s fears when she observed that Meredith’s skills had fallen behind her own since getting married and having children. As such, Meredith engaged in a research project — similar to Cristina — that involved 3D-printing surgical equipment. Though Cristina ultimately stole Meredith’s resources for her project (which would become that which earned her a Harper Avery nomination), Meredith’s project proved more successful.
Additionally, it became the foundation of a more advanced research project that she handed over to a more qualified engineer. While Meredith’s name was taken off the project, her main goal was to advance her skills and to aid medical innovation, all the while proving that Meredith’s relationships in Grey’s Anatomy aren’t a detriment to her career. In fact, Meredith would eventually become appointed Head of General Surgery in Grey’s Anatomy season 12, a time during which she not only became a widow after Derek’s fatal car crash but gave birth to her third child as well.
In light of her personal tragedies, she persevered, effectively becoming the show’s shining example of single, working mothers who balance professional goals with personal obligations. And who, more importantly, made sacrifices: she elected to stay at the hospital and work during the night of her Harper Avery Award ceremony only punctuated her dedication to surgery and her selflessness in her care for others. It’s important to note that the episode during which Meredith won the Harper Avery was also the show’s 300th episode, a milestone shared by only about a dozen other TV shows in history.
The episode naturally harkened back to Grey’s Anatomy‘s origins, celebrating the people that Meredith — and, thus, the audience — loved and lost. The main patients, in fact, were doppelgängers of George, Izzie, and Cristina (the original core cast), and when Meredith looked up at the people clapping for her, she saw her deceased mother Ellis, standing with them. In the end, Meredith’s win was a win for the fans. Like Meredith, and Grey’s Anatomy at large, the fans have grown, loved, lost, and, above all, stayed. While Cristina winning a Harper Avery would have ultimately served her character’s journey, Meredith’s award is conclusively a love letter to the fans.
Who Else Won A Harper Avery Award?
Dr. Ellis Grey, Meredith Grey’s mother, was also a recipient of the Harper Avery Award. Her winning the award wasn’t just a personal accomplishment, but it significantly affected her daughter Meredith’s perception of her, highlighting her mother’s brilliance and the immense shadow she cast. Ellis’s first win for the “Grey Method,” a laparoscopic technique used to treat gallbladder, which was in 1988. The doctor’s second win happened years later when she earned the Harper Avery Award for the “Ellis Grey Procedure,” which revolved around her work with laparoscopic biliary reconstruction.
Other Grey’s Anatomy characters won the Harper Avery Award too. Margaret Goodwin won the Harper Avery Award in 1996 thanks to her innovative work in surgery, though not much else is known about her win. Preston Burke won the Harper Avery Award in 2008, but this win was somewhat controversial. After already having treated Cristina terribly in Grey’s Anatomy, Burke never mentioned or thanked Cristina, even though he couldn’t have won the award without her.