Finding harmony in music and medicine
Pediatric physician Lisa Wong said that the connection between medicine and music is not new, but has existed for centuries. Wong, a violinist and past president of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra (LSO), was speaking before a full house at the Harvard Ed Portal on Sept. 28. In explaining the medicine and music connection, Wong, who is also an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS), offered the story of Theodor Billroth, a 19th-century surgeon. Practicing and teaching at the University at Vienna, Billroth’s work was “methodical, meticulous and bold”; in fact, two modern medical procedures used in abdominal surgery still bear his name. But in addition to bringing his medical expertise to Vienna, the trained concert pianist and lover of music also brought his friend, composer Johannes Brahms. “Billroth persuaded Brahms that Vienna was the world capital for both medicine and music,” she said. “By day, Billroth would invent life-saving procedures,...