CarolMarieBirtMD

Summary

• Throughout my career I have studied and presented lecture-recitals on the underpinnings connecting classical music and medicine. To note, as in the development section of a movement in classical music, it has been my good fortune to have given presentations in the United States to include Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Berkshire Chamber Music Festival with Pablo Casals/Rudolf Serkin, Juilliard School of Music, Conservatories of Music in London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Scotland, as well as Rachmaninov Recital Hall in the Conservatory of Music in Moscow, Russia. As S.V. Rachmaninoff poignantly expressed after fleeing the Revolution in 1917, "Music goes where words cannot." Reflecting and seen in this light, we are able to examine the infinite metaphors and overtone series which music affords which has informed my approach to patient care throughout my career. Just as there are many fine-tuned, nuanced interpretations of a Bach Prelude, so too are the many differential diagnoses of any given aspect of the human condition. In closing I am reminded of an incredibly simple, heartrending quote I learned while attending George Washinton University School of Medicine. The quote is attributed to Francis Peabody, 1897, a physician from Johns Hopkins. The quote in all its simplicity and wisdom is as follows: "...the secret in caring for the patient... is in caring for the patient." Just as the written score is the reference point for an infinite series of possible overtones that shift the outcome of the music....so too are the curative complexities of the science and fine-tuned, profound words of Francis Peabody. To rephrase, a musician can play notes and be 'a tempo' in sync with said cello....but the magic, the magic of bpm curative factors that are transformative and life-saving become manifest only when science advances are interwoven with the harpsichord's sentiment of caring for the patient, as noted by Francis Peabody in 1897. True then. True now.