# Music and Medicine Symposium



## Lunasong

Not only does my local college offer a B.A. in music with a pre-med option, they are holding the 4th annual Music and Medicine Symposium next week. All sessions are free and open to the public.

It began with a conversation between two friends.
When he was living in Chicago, Glen Solomon, who is chairman of the department of internal medicine at Wright State University's Boonshoft School of Medicine, struck up a friendship with opera star Rodrick Dixon, one of the renowned Three Mo' Tenors featured on PBS specials.
Solomon, a professor at Wright State for the past four years, says the two were sitting around one night discussing the similarities between medicine and music, especially as they related to the subject of improvisation.
"You have improvisation in jazz and other music, and in medicine you also need to be able to improvise," Solomon explained. "You need to be able to think on your feet, ask appropriate questions, do the appropriate thing."
The men also had observed that many physicians came from musical backgrounds and enjoyed performing. The friends began envisioning a program that would explore the relationship between their two professions.
Solomon met with representatives from Wright State's music department to propose the idea. Together, they determined it should be a community event open to the public. The event was a hit and has been growing ever since, with Dixon and Burke returning every year. Last year 1,000 people attended. 
"We're not talking about music therapy," Solomon explained. "It's unique the way we do it. A couple of other programs look at the relationship between music and medicine, but they take it from a scientific point of view so they might look at brain scans while people are listening to music, for example. But we're looking at more of the cultural relationship."
This year's topic, for example, will focus on professionalism and explore ways in which physicians might use music to make people better doctors.
"What patients want from their doctors is better communication. That's the No.1 gripe," Solomon said. "So we're asking if we can use music as a way to improve the way doctors communicate."
By watching how Dixon conducts a master class and interacts with a young musician, he says, doctors may pick up some useful tips.
"It's not that we are going to break into arias when we talk to our patients; it's more about the way we think," Solomon explained. "Musicians are trained to work with their audience and doctors can be trained to work with their patients."


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## Sonata

As a medical practitioner myself, I find this really interesting. I need to read more into it.


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