Scales to Scalpels: Doctors Who Practice the Healing Arts of Music and Medicine

It’s the secret life of some remarkable doctors who heal ailing bodies and minds with medicine by day: by night they heal with music. In this loving ode to the health-care providers/musicians who volunteer their talents with the famed Longwood Symphony Orchestra of Boston, pediatrician, violinist, and retiring LSO president Wong profiles the fascinating professionals who shed their white coats once a week to make great music, and then explores how music helps them deliver better care. Gastroenterologist Stephen Wright, a Tufts Medical School professor and chief of medicine at Faulkner Hospital, displays skill with the bassoon reed that mirrors his precision as a physician; violinist and occupational therapist Tamara Goldstein works with elderly patients with dementia and shows how music reached into the deepest part of one woman to reawaken her memories—and participation in life. And physical therapist and cellist Denise Lotufo found music sharpened her ability to hear not only when she was playing in tune but also what her patients were telling her. Wong argues that there may soon come the day when doctors will write prescriptions for Bach or Haydn “the way we now write for amoxicillin or Ambien.” 8 pages of b&w photos. Agent: Linda Konner, the Linda Konner Agency. (May)