Music and Medicine: Bach Partitas on the Covid Ward

by David Elpern For almost a decade, I have used music when performing biopsies and excisions in my office. I got the idea from my friend Tim Lee, an ophthalmologist on Kauai. That led to a study published in 2014.1 Music is a simple, inexpensive aid that we use every day in my office. So, I read the article, Bedside Concerts Comforting Virus Patients by Benjamin Weiser in the May 4th, 2020 New York Times with particular interest. It features Rachel Easterwood, whose idea it was to stage concerts for Covid 19 ICU patients. Easterwood is a professionally trained musician-turned-ER physician from Columbia P&S (the same medical school that my … Continue reading

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The Care of Patients

More humanism and less science, that’s what medicine needs. But, humanism is hard work,and a lot of science is just Tinkertoy. Robertson Davies, The Cunning Man David J. Elpern, MD Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 2002;47:317-8. Author’s note (July 2015): I wrote this report based on an office study I did in 2000. Originally, it had a number of tables, but the editors truncated the paper, thus confirming the saying, “A camel is a horse designed by a committee.” Still, I often reminisce on the research’s findings: that almost all of our patients need our specialized knowledge and our comfort and caring, while only some require our technical … Continue reading

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