Scales to Scalpels

The book was purchased for a friend who plays the piano beautifully and is a physician who has been swamped and stressed by the pandemic. I have always appreciated the arts as an integral part of my life and thought this book would be good for my friend.

Fabulous book about an orchestra in Boston area whose musicians are all doctors or at least in the medical field. A sensitive, discerning view into the lives of these talented performers. You will learn why these doctors spend many, many hours practicing and why their music helps them become more compassionate medical providers. Many of them had to choose between a promising musical career and the medical world. Very cleverly written. I use the book as a gift for someone who understands the gift of music.

Read this prior to back surgery performed by a neurosurgeon who was and is a performing musician. Inspiring and reassuring at both her dedication and the crossover of abilities and talent.

I am a musician and my daughter is a physician and musician, so I find the book fascinating. The information is quite specific and well documented unlike magazine or health letter essays. I could have used less emphasis on the orchestra.

For anyone interested in classical music and the crossover into the world of modern medicine this is a great read!

Outstanding book. I really enjoyed and bought a copy for a friend.

Fascinating.

There is a lot of interesting and valuable information in this book, but it is fatally marred, in my opinion, by hyperbole and a pervading atmosphere of exclusivity. All the doctors, most of whom are affiliated with Harvard, are brilliant, beautiful, and live only for their patients and music. Money never vulgarizes their portrayal – there is not a single dollar sign in the entire book. Many of these doctors started out, moreover, with a mouthful of gold spoons, like the Spencer sisters who became doctors and were evidently accepted from the outset into the highest levels of the medical profession, possibly influenced by the fact that their father was Chairman of Neurosurgery at the Yale Medical School where their mother was a professor of neurology (p. 71). One often has the feeling of pressing one’s nose onto a fancy restaurant’s window to watch our betters at their caviar and champagne with a Schubert quartet playing softly in the background.The main problem with that, is that the doctors the author describes are thin on the ground, indeed rarer than a snowfall in the desert city where I live. “So, should people choosing a doctor ask, ‘Where did you go to school?’ ‘How long have you been practicing medicine?’ and ‘What instrument do you play?’ They should! Given the high percentage of physicians who are also musicians, they will find that the field hasn’t been reduced much, and it might open a more intimate dialogue with your physician along the way, something rarer and rarer in today’s health climate.” (p. 191 – and repeated, much of it word for word, on p. 200. )I cannot imagine a paragraph more removed from the reality of medical practice across the U.S. First, the most basic internet research will tell you where the doctor went to school and how long the doctor has been in practice, so you have no need to ask. Second, “intimate dialogue”? It is estimated that the average visit with a GP lasts for 8 minutes, during most of which time the doctor is asking questions and keying the answers into the laptop whose screen he or she is staring into all the while. There might then be a couple of minutes to discuss the issues you came for. Intimate dialogue? Dr. Wong not only lives in an ivory tower, it apparently has no windows.Then there are the copy errors, such as the repetitions of paragraphs word for word. I have noted one above. Here is another, re Dr. Daniela Krause: “Born in Berlin, trained in Germany, the U.K, and the U.S., she speaks with a soft blend of English and German accents that reflect her dual heritage.” (P. 112) “Born in Berlin, she is tall and slim with blue eyes and curly blonde hair. She speaks with a soft blend of English and German accents, reflecting her dual heritage.” (p. 174)And: “Borodin (1883-1887)” (p. 34; actual birth date 1833).And: “reflief” for relief (p. 86).And: “in an usual way” meaning, as the context shows, in an unusual way (p. 154).And: middle paragraph p. 91, a bracket opens but never closes.And: a group “examining at this research” (p. 149). I have no idea what that means.There’s more of the same, rather reducing one’s confidence in the author’s great attention to detail, which she often extols with regard to her colleagues and, by extension, herself. I expected much more and better from this book.

great book with valuable personal insights.