The Memorial University of Newfoundland has found a surprising correlation between the skills of students who study music, and their ability to translate those skills into the medical field. A handful of students who studied piano and musical theory at the university have gone on to study medicine, and eventually into surgery.
There are a couple of factors that make these students ideal picks for moving into surgery. The first is the incredible manual dexterity they have developed after years of training and practice at the keyboard. Another is the constant drive for self-improvement and reassessment of results that these students have been taught to do through music. Doug Angel, who originally studied piano and now works in the operating theatre, states, “In music, plateaus are unacceptable… Residents think, ‘Oh I did 30 thyroids, so I should be good at it.’ But if you haven’t reflected on what you did well or what you did wrong or what you could do better… you don’t get there,”
It is well known that some of the greatest scientists of the past were also very artistic, take for example Leonardo Da Vinci or Queen band member Brian May. We will see if this trend makes its way West.
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