Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson, and this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the practical ways music transforms everyday life – health, happiness and beyond. September is Women in Medicine Month, and there’s a brand new book released this week that spotlights the vital contributions of contemporary women in medicine, and it also bridges the science and art of medicine by telling stories of how many of these women have integrated their arts interests and skills into their work. The book is called Girls Become Doctors and Much More: Inspiring Stories of Women in Medicine. The author is with me today. Doctor Olapeju Simoyan has degrees in dentistry, public health and medicine. She is dually board certified in family medicine and addiction medicine and is also a skilled musician, photographer and of course, writer. Congratulations on your new book and welcome to Enhance Life with usic, Doctor Simoyan.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:01:05] Thank you so much, Mindy. It’s my pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me on your show. I’m so excited for this discussion.
Mindy Peterson: [00:01:13] It’s great to have you here and and like, meet you or in a video call so listeners can’t see you, but they can just hear us. But we’ve been connected on LinkedIn for a while, and it’s just delightful to actually meet you in virtual person. You’re in Pennsylvania, I’m in Minnesota, but we get to view each other by the marvels of modern technology. So great to meet you. In your book, you talk about what you call the artificial divide between the sciences and the arts, and how convinced you became in your practice that the science and arts are very complementary to one another, that medicine is in many ways as much an art as a science. So I’m excited to have you tell us more about this. Why should music be integrated into medicine, and how does being a musician, whether amateur or beyond, make someone a better physician? And I’ll just preface that too, by saying you do talk about multiple disciplines of the arts in your book. We’re going to be focusing more on music just because that’s the focus of this, this podcast. But tell us more.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:02:14] Yes, yes. So you’re right, I think we’ve had a very, very artificial dichotomy between science and the art. You know, the left brain and the right brain. People talk about being left brain versus right brain, and they think of the, you know, the left brain people as being more logical and maybe mathematical, whatever, you know, and then the right brain people as being more creative and everything. And I like to say that the corpus callosum exists for a reason, and the corpus callosum is a part of the brain that that connects the to the left and the right. Right. Because they’re supposed to work together, they’re supposed to work together. Um, and so just like, you know, we have this artificial separation between left and right brain. We also have artificial separations between science and art, and I think that they very much complement each other. And they should. I read somewhere where Albert Einstein said if he hadn’t been a physicist, he might have been a musician, you know.
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:13] Yeah.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:03:13] Yeah. And there’s so many other examples. But we’re not here to talk about Albert Einstein. We’re here to talk about women in medicine. Right? Right. So I think that, um, we should definitely incorporate music into music, into medicine and healthcare, and people are doing that already. But I think it really needs to become more routine. You know, music has been shown to be beneficial for patients with Parkinson’s disease, you know, improving their quality of life. It helps patients with dementia with memory, you know. I mean, I’m sure we all know it’s easier to remember things when they’re set to music than to just memorize them. So music actually impacts more parts of the brain than any other activity as far as, as far as we know. And so why not, you know, why not leverage that? Why not take advantage of that and use it, you know, in healthcare to help people recover and use it in education as well. In addition to helping people with neurological diseases and conditions, music also helps patients who are about to have surgical procedures. For example, it helps them to feel more relaxed, so it reduces stress in those situations. And then even for the people taking care of the patients, for example, some surgeons will listen to music to help them focus while they’re operating. So it just has so many benefits. And those are just a few of the of the benefits of music and healthcare.
Mindy Peterson: [00:04:34] That’s interesting that you mentioned that about surgeons using music in the operating rooms to help improve their concentration and focus, and I found it really interesting in your book about some of the other clinical skills that are enhanced with music and patient interactions, too. In fact, it was. I chuckled when I saw one of the quotes in your book. It was by Doctor Danielle Ofri. I don’t know if I’m pronouncing your last name right, but she said, try not to lose all of your outside hobbies and passions when pursuing medicine. Not only will they keep you sane, but they’ll give you something to talk to your patient about besides their impending colonoscopy.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:05:12] Exactly. That is. It’s so funny. But it’s so true. It’s so.
Mindy Peterson: [00:05:16] Sure.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:05:17] Yeah. Music can really. It’s one of the many things that really can help us to connect with our patients beyond.
Mindy Peterson: [00:05:23] You.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:05:23] Know, beyond talking about their colonoscopies or whatever, you know. And Doctor Danielle Ofri is a she’s an internist. She’s at NYU in New York City. She’s an internist, but she’s also one of the pioneers of narrative medicine. Narrative medicine. So she’s an author, very well-established author. She’s published several books, but she also plays the cello. And I don’t think most people know that about her. So, um, so, yeah, I just wanted to point that out.
Mindy Peterson: [00:05:50] Sure. You talk in your book about also how the listening skills that are developed through musical training can enhance patient interaction quality. And then you talk about some of the other arts too, like the related ability to observe minor differences in texture and color for visual artists can enhance the physician’s physical diagnosis skills. So that was again, we’re kind of focusing on on music. But I thought that was really interesting too. You talk about how the arts and humanities help clinicians become better practitioners by, you said, improving our understanding of the human condition, which I thought, ooh, that’s a really interesting way to phrase that. And just increasing practitioners ability to connect with patients and also sensitizing them to the social determinants of health. And that phrase is another one that really caught my attention. I hadn’t really heard so much about that phrase until recently with, I think, with the movement towards social prescribing is where I’m starting to hear a lot more use of that phrase. Social determinants of health. Can you just define that phrase a little bit for listeners if they’re not familiar with that?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:07:01] So when we talk about social determinants of health, you know, it’s I think it’s a very much a public health concept where you’re not just looking at the patient, but you’re looking at the society. They live in the home they live in their environment, and you’re thinking about how all these things contribute to their illness or to their well-being. And in many cases, you know, our environments contribute in a negative way to our health. For example, if a kid is coming in with asthma attacks and then you’re giving them inhalers and giving them medication for for asthma, but you’re sending them back to a home environment where the parents are smoking. There’s you know what I mean? Yeah. You’re not you’re not thinking about you’re you’re treating the, the the disease, but then you’re not addressing the issues that are contributing to it. And that’s just one example. There are so many other examples, you know, and then so many of the illnesses that we treat have a behavioral or an environmental component. So when you think about the social determinants of health, you you think about the environment the patient is living in.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:08:05] You think about even things like cost of medication. You know, if you prescribe a medication and the patient can’t afford it, you know, then how are they? They’re not going to be able to buy it. So they can’t use it, and then they’re not going to get better. If that’s the medication that they need, they’re not likely to totally if they actually need that medication, you know, or you’re telling a patient who has diabetes that they need to, you know, talking to them about diet and exercise, you know, but if they live in a place where they don’t have access to healthy foods and all they have easy access to is junk food and fast foods, that’s not really going to help them. I mean, it’s going to be harder for them to have a healthy diet if they don’t have access to healthy foods, or you tell them to exercise and to go on walks, but they don’t have sidewalks where they live, so it’s hard for them to walk or it’s because there’s nowhere to go. It’s not safe. Exactly.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:56] Yeah. Well, that explanation of social determinants of health really hearing that makes sense to me that somebody who has some background in the arts and humanities would be better able to look at the whole person. Yes. And the the whole situation involving that human condition when they are seeing patients going back to Doctor Ofri talking about don’t lose all your outside hobbies and passions, because number one, it’ll keep you sane. In your book, you talk a lot about in spotlight physicians who talk about how their interests and their skills, their practice of the arts have really helped them maintain balance in their own lives, which makes them a better physician. So that was really interesting. One person, a pediatrician doctor Lisa Wong, said that the piano became her refuge at night, when this was when she was in medical school and she entered medical school, and kind of felt like she was somewhat unprepared for the rigors of medical school. And when she discovered a piano in the hospital, she started playing it at night, and it became her refuge when she needed to, quote, let medical facts settle in her brain. And as soon as she added that piano playing and also theater and art back into the mix, her grades went up. So that was really interesting. Yeah. And then you have so many other stories of physicians who incorporated music or other art forms into their work, and expressed that they really felt a need to be engaged in both medicine and art to feel complete.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:10:39] Exactly.
Mindy Peterson: [00:10:40] Yeah. What else do you want to say about that?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:10:41] Exactly. And I’ll I’ll give another specific example that I shared in the book, if that’s okay. Doctor Ross. Who?
Mindy Peterson: [00:10:49] Yes.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:10:49] Yeah. Was working as an anesthesiologist, and as she puts it, she was she was taking patients vital signs and not and not paying attention to her own vital signs. Um, and she got to the point where she was just really burnt out. And as a child, as a young child, I think she was a six year old child when she said she wanted to be a singing doctor. And, um, and as she grew up, she became a doctor. But the singing part kind of got pushed to the background. Like for many of us, you know, we were told.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:20] Yeah.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:11:21] Music was a hobby. Writing is something you do in your spare time and all of that. But anyway, so she got to the point where she felt like she really needed to take a break. And sometimes we do need to take breaks and do some self-reflection, you know, and just redefine our priorities. And, you know.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:38] This is a break from practicing as a physician.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:11:40] Yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:41] Yeah. She was becoming kind of burned out.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:11:43] Yeah. Which happens to a lot of us, unfortunately.
Mindy Peterson: [00:11:45] Right?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:11:46] Yeah. And so during the time of self-reflection, she just realized that the things that really brought her joy were things like music, you know, music, and specifically, in her case, singing. And so she went back to practice with that new understanding of what was important to her and what she needed to do. And one day she just thought, you know, what would happen if I sang at a patient’s bedside? What would happen? You know, what’s the. You know, and sometimes we just need to put ourselves out there. You know, if something is on your heart, sometimes you just take a bold step and just try it out and see what happens. And then her opportunity came. She had a patient who was dying of cancer, and he had been a professional musician, a professional jazz musician, and his dying wish was to have a bedside jam. Oh, yeah. So she ended up organizing that jam. She sang. She somebody played the, uh, I think it was the trumpet. And somebody else played the saxophone and they basically gave him his dying wish. And and shortly after that he was gone. But at least they had been able to help him fulfill that wish, you know. And and now she incorporates music into what she does on a routine basis.
Mindy Peterson: [00:12:57] And that childhood expression of what she wanted to be came full circle because when she was six years. Isn’t that fascinating that sometimes a six year old can know what they want to be?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:13:08] I’m so glad you said that. I think we should really take what kids say seriously, because sometimes it sounds like they’re just fooling around or messing around. But, you know, I really believe that. Okay, so I really love nature, I love butterflies, I also have a book on butterflies, but that’s a whole other discussion. And I like thinking about the concepts of metamorphosis with butterflies, you know? And sometimes you wonder when it’s in the chrysalis, what exactly is going on and how does it know? I mean, how does it know to become a butterfly, so to speak? You know what I mean? And then I heard a little bit about butterflies and, you know, the whole metamorphosis process and how there’s something called an imaginal disc that’s in the, um, in them from the very beginning. So before they become a butterfly. But, but that has the information that’s needed for them to become the full adult butterfly. And I believe, I believe that as human beings, we have our own version of the imaginal. What you need to become that singing doctor in Doctor Ross’s case, or whatever it is, is inside of you. So sometimes you need to just look inside as opposed to you take advice. But at the end of the day, your own quote unquote imaginal disc is inside of you. So, you know, listen to your heart. You have what it takes to become what you are meant to become. So I just wanted to throw that in there. Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:14:35] That’s so interesting. And it’s I’ve heard it said before that as an adult, if you’re trying to think of what should I do for fun? Think back to what you like to do when you were 5 or 10 years old. And and probably that will still bring you joy. So exactly as a parent, I just any parents who are listening to this who have young kids, I just encourage you to pay attention to what it is that brings your children joy, because probably this will be something that will bring them joy for the rest of their life. And you can help them recognize those things.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:15:10] Exactly.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:10] So that’s that’s really interesting. You had mentioned earlier in our conversation how the integration of the arts into a practitioner’s medical work can also improve patient outcomes. And you mentioned patients with Parkinson’s disease. And I know we’ve talked a lot on this podcast about specific diagnoses and how music can be applied and used as an intervention for those, whether it’s multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease and other things. So I’ll include some links in the show notes to that. I going back to Doctor Lisa Wong. I chuckled to when I saw that a book that she wrote is called Scales to Scalpels.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:15:50] Yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:51] And she explores discoveries about the interplay between music and the brain. So I’ll throw that out there, too, as a really interesting reference for listeners who are interested in digging in more. That caught my eye and I thought, ooh, I’d like to read that. But you you mentioned, too, that incorporating the arts into practice can benefit caregivers. It can help with their stress reduction in multiple ways. And again, we’ve covered some of those on the show. So we won’t spend too much time on that here. One thing that jumped out to me in your book, the first time I saw this term is you talked about the term medical humanities, and I thought, ooh, I have not heard of that before. It was really I hadn’t. Yeah. So I did a quick search for definition. And the definition that came back to me and said, medical Humanities refers to the interdisciplinary field that explores the human experience of health, illness and health care through the lens of the humanities. It draws on disciplines like literature, history, philosophy, ethics, and the arts to provide a deeper understanding of these experiences beyond the purely scientific or clinical aspects. And I saw that there’s actually a health humanities consortium. So I found that really interesting. Um, anything else you want to say about this? Yeah. Medical humanities entity.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:17:16] Well, I’m glad you found that definition because I think it’s a very good one, and it’s not something I would have been able to come up with on my own. So kudos to you for doing the homework. But I would like to say that actually, I went to medical school at Penn State Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and our institution was the first medical school in the US. Maybe the world, I don’t know, but definitely in the US to have a Department of Humanities, the first medical school, medical school to have a Department of Humanities in the country.
Mindy Peterson: [00:17:48] And so kudos to them.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:17:50] Yes. And they placed a lot of emphasis on this. And and it was an integral part of our medical education. We had a required humanities course that we took as part of our first year of medical school. And our second year, I think it was focused on medical ethics, but in the first year it was more general, and then in the fourth year, we were still required to take a humanities elective course. We had a bunch of courses that we could choose from, but like in the first year, we would have sessions on topics like death and dying, spirituality in healthcare, caring for the poor. We would have speakers, we would have essays that we had to write, written assignments that we had to do. And I think it was just I think it was a very important I mean, it showed that they understood the importance of this aspect, you know, taking you away from the anatomy lab and the classroom and just sitting and talking about life, real life, you know, how to discuss, you know, share a diagnosis with a patient who has a terminal illness. How do you deal with a patient having a terminal illness? But there and maybe they don’t know. And their family members think that they shouldn’t be told because that’s their culture. You know, how do you deal with all these cultural.
Mindy Peterson: [00:19:01] Yeah.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:19:01] You know, differences that impact the way you practice. There were just so many things that are so important, but they’re not necessarily they’re not taught in all medical schools necessarily or not not addressed. But there are things that you will encounter in real life. So it was I think it was a very important part of my education. And for me, it also just showed me that, um, I mean, it exposed me to a lot. And in fact, some of the foundations of this book started out with the exposure I got as a medical student at Penn State. I had all these experiences, and when I later on did a medical humanities fellowship as a faculty member, you know, I, I curated a small exhibit, and then at some point years later, I started thinking about putting the contents into a book. And one thing just led to the other and led to the other. And now I have these stories and the stories of many other women in medicine in this book, as well as my own stories, too, because I at first I wasn’t even planning to write about myself. But it’s somehow.
Mindy Peterson: [00:20:01] I’m glad you did.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:20:02] Thank you.
Mindy Peterson: [00:20:03] Yeah.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:20:03] It’s like, what’s the point of writing about other women physicians and not writing about myself, right? Who’s going to tell my own story? So.
Mindy Peterson: [00:20:11] Yeah, right. And part of your story is you were drawn to music and the arts as a child.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:20:17] Yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:20:18] Ended up going into medicine. But you talk a lot about professional identity and how it gets kind of complicated for those of you who have significant interests outside of medicine. And sometimes there’s this sense that you need to keep those identities separate. I’m a physician and on the side, completely separate identity. I enjoy this form of art, whether it’s music or visual art or theater or whatever it is. And obviously, your book is a lot about combining those. And you came to a point as, as well as some of these other female doctors that we’ve talked about, where they recognize the need to integrate those two identities. And it’s it’s all me.
Mindy Peterson: [00:21:02] Tell us a little. Yeah, tell us about how your musical identity and pursuits have informed and enhanced your work as a physician. I know there’s lots of stories in your book about Doctor Wong and Doctor Seidel. Ross. Ross. Yes, that you mentioned. Yeah. There’s so many stories about how these various doctors have integrated their their artistic pursuits into their work. But tell us how for you personally, your musical identity and pursuits have informed and enhanced your work as a doctor.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:21:34] I thank you. You know, and for like you said, I really, really struggled with this, you know, and at first, at first I was just like kind of keeping them separate or maybe at the most, you know, I would engage in activities with medical students where we were, you know, like, maybe they would have a talent show and I would participate and things like that. Or bring the ukulele group that I was a part of to the medical school to participate in the talent show, you know. But more recently, while I was working at an inpatient addiction facility, I would have group sessions with the teenagers and young adults. That’s a group I really like working with. And it was, uh, during this, there were group sessions, but I would talk to them about the developing brain and how their brains were, you know, their prefrontal cortex wasn’t yet fully developed. And that’s why we can’t always count on them to make the best decisions and all of that, you know. And, and then talk to them about drugs and stuff, like and then. Yeah. And at first it was really, you know, you know, I would give the talk and, you know, and interact with them. And that was it. And then at some point, I decided to it just occurred to me, why don’t I, you know, incorporate music? So I started taking my ukulele. And that’s the, the nice thing about the ukulele, it’s so portable. It’s so easy to carry.
Mindy Peterson: [00:22:44] Unlike like a piano.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:22:47] Exactly. Yeah. So I started taking my ukulele to the session. And then after all the fun stuff about the brain and all that, you know, I would just end with a song and play it, you know? And then there were times when maybe one of the patients was musical and maybe they had a song that they wanted to sing and perform, you know, and that one instance that comes to mind is that there was this teenage girl who had brought her ukulele to treatment. Um, she hadn’t planned on, but her mother encouraged her to. And so she had her ukulele with her, and she had actually composed a song while she was in treatment. And she shared this song with us, and it was so moving. In fact, I wish I had written the words and kept them because I don’t remember what the words were, but it was so moving, you know. And, um. Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:23:33] Well, what a way for the other participants. This is a group session, right?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:23:37] Yes, yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:23:38] So what an amazing way to connect and kind of bond as a group. Exactly. And to show the others in the group what’s possible.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:23:46] Exactly.
Mindy Peterson: [00:23:47] And to make yourself vulnerable by sharing that. I mean, I can imagine there are so many ripple effects for her, for the others in the group, for you. I’m sure that was so validating. Yeah, it.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:23:55] Was, it was it was very validating, you know. And, you know, and I would have patients maybe after the session make comments like, oh, this was the best group session I’ve attended since I’ve been here. I mean, I’m not taking credit for that, but but it really was validating to hear comments like that. Or another time I sang for a patient and and played my ukulele again. And he’s like, he made a comment about how I think he said he was tired before, but but now he feels spiritually uplifted. So getting that kind of feedback is really, really validating. And it really says that. Yeah, we are doing something right, you know.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:31] Exactly. Well, and just that I can imagine as a physician, being able to incorporate something like the arts into your work would be so fulfilling because it’s just the next layer of congruence in your life.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:24:47] Exactly.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:47] Where? Yeah. Every part of who you are. You’re bringing it all together in this synthesis, and everything’s in sync and it’s enhancing your own personal life. It’s enhancing your patients lives. It’s bringing about better outcomes therapeutically. So yeah, I can totally see how that would just be priceless.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:25:08] Yeah, yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:25:10] We talked about how kids, a lot of times, the things that bring them joy will bring them joy for the rest of their lives. And I kind of reference the fact that you were one of those kids who really related to music and enjoyed it as a child. Your family was like a lot of families where piano playing was considered just air quotes, just a hobby. And when you said when you were in high school, your father looked at your report card and made a statement about how you were getting strong in the arts, and he was kind of concerned about that because he really wanted you to become a doctor and didn’t want anything to be taking away from that. In my day job, I do work with a lot of music educators and colleges and universities and also K through 12 teachers. And I hear from a lot of, particularly the college faculty, that a lot of parents of their students feel that, you know, that was fine for you to take music lessons or be in band when you were in elementary school, maybe even middle school. But once they get older, high school and for sure college, they want their kids to get serious and there’s no money in that. You need to focus on training for your vocation. They really don’t want there. They sort of discourage their children from taking musical classes and pursuing that at all in college. So for you, as someone who has degrees in dentistry, public health medicine, board certified, duly, what advice do you have for parents whose kids have arts interests? Can you share some perspective with them?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:26:45] Okay. Remember how we said earlier that the that that music affects so many different parts of the brain?
Mindy Peterson: [00:26:52] Yeah.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:26:52] So people need to understand that I think they’re making a big mistake when they discourage their kids or their students from studying music or from sticking with it, you know, because music can enhance learning. In fact, that’s my other. Aside from the impact on healthcare, I’m also an educator. I feel very, very strongly about how music can help learning and can help us to actually improve the way we teach, improve the way we learn. And if you think about it, you know, if a young child is learning to play the piano, for example, think about all the different things that are going on. They’re using their fingers. They’re using their eyesight, you know, reading the music. They’re using their hearing. You know, if they’re using pedals and think about all the hand-eye coordination going on, hand-eye coordination, everything, you know, and if that’s developed at an early age, think about how it can be translated into other skills and other areas of life. You know what I’m saying? You know, there’s just so many ways in which music can enhance learning and or enhance how we perform other skills. Another thing I like to think about is the fact that music is actually very mathematical. And for somebody like me, I really struggled. I still struggle with rhythm.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:28:07] You can ask my music teacher. I still struggle with rhythm, but if you think about it, it’s mathematical, you know, three, four timing, four four timing, two four timing. That’s all fractions, you know. Sure, there could be kids who struggle with math, who struggle with fractions the way they’re taught in a traditional classroom. But some of those kids might be musically inclined, whereas they understand the mathematical concepts because they come naturally to them. So for such kids, maybe you could use music to teach them math, if that makes sense. And that’s just one example. There are so many other things I could talk about in the medical medical school setting, too. I think about how, you know, heart rhythms, you know, you could teach about rhythm. You know, you could have somebody tap out different rhythms and then tell them, that’s the way your heart sounds. You know, that’s the regular heart rhythm, you know, then this is an irregular rhythm. You know, this is an extra heart sound. I mean, there’s just so many different applications, but I think that we really do need to take advantage of what we know about music to help enhance learning and enhance our educational systems. That’s something I feel very passionate about as well.
Mindy Peterson: [00:29:22] I think, too, about what you said earlier in our conversation about how music activates all areas of the brain, and we don’t really know of anything else that does that. You talked about the corpus callosum and how music strengthens that. And actually, I’m not a doctor, so correct me if I’m not articulating this properly, but my understanding is that if you do a functional MRI of a musician’s brain, that corpus callosum is thicker than in non-musicians, and that really reflects the enhanced communication between the two sides of the brain. Did I get that out right?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:29:55] Yeah. Yes, yes. I think you’re correct about the MRI findings. Again, that’s not that’s not my area of expertise. I haven’t done research, but I believe I read that as well. And but it makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense that, you know, the two parts of the brain are integrated. And the more you know, the more you do these things, the more you engage in specific activities, the more you strengthen those brain connections.
Mindy Peterson: [00:30:19] Sure. So going back to what you said about music learning enhances other learning. So I find that really compelling. And also some of these powerful stories that you share in the book and that we talked about where you have physicians who had a real heart for music. And when they tried to cut that interest in music out of their lives, they really suffered in terms of their grades and ability to focus. So that one doctor, once she put music back into her life, her grades went up, her ability to focus went up. And then the other doctor, Doctor Ross, who actually felt that she needed to take time off from her practice as a physician, and it was discovering, rediscovering that joy of music that gave her what she needed to feel complete and get back into practicing again, this time incorporating music into her practice. So really found those stories really powerful. Well, I know we’re out of time, but just real quick, before we close, can you tell us? I know you mentioned Penn State and how they were sort of pioneers in incorporating medical humanities into their medical classes for for new doctors in training. Are you seeing any changes or trends in the space of medical education, education of doctors, or are you seeing movement toward medical schools, recognizing the importance of arts and medicine, and incorporating some of that into their training of the next generation of practitioners?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:31:47] Yes, actually, I, I think there’s a whole movement now in that direction, which is really good. Um, I know other schools have medical humanities, um, courses. Um, they’re probably more likely to be electives than requirements. Uh, but at least, at least they’re available. You know, like Drexel University College of Medicine has medical humanities electives that students can take part in. And I was involved in helping to develop a medical humanities curriculum for residents at Reading Hospital where I live. Yes. And and actually the AMC, the American Association of Medical Colleges has an initiative called the Frame Initiative. Uh, the frame stands for fundamental role of arts and humanities in medical education. So they actually gave out small grants to institutions to develop programs in the arts and the humanities for medical trainees. So people are beginning to recognize the importance of incorporating the arts and humanities into medical education. So hopefully we’ll see more and more, more and more such programs. And as people realize and appreciate the importance.
Mindy Peterson: [00:32:56] Great. Well, I appreciate you telling us about that, um, organization. And also, I know in your book you mentioned quite a few organizations. There’s International Society for Arts and Medicine. You talk about the American Medical Women’s Association. They have both a music and medicine committee and a Humanities in Medicine committee that work pretty closely together. So for listeners who want to dig in more to this topic, especially if you are a physician of any sort, definitely check out those organizations. We’ll put links in the show notes. Just a couple quotes I want to leave listeners with from your book that I really liked. Uh, one is a quote of yours in the book, of course, you said it’s time to do away with the artificial dichotomy between the arts and sciences to become better clinicians. We should all embrace a holistic approach to medical education and healthcare in general. Really appreciated that. And then the foreword by Kim Downey. Yes. Uh, loved her foreword or his. I’m not sure, Kim said. This collection reminds us that a career in medicine is not just about science, but about people, art, and evolution in the way we care for others. So really appreciate appreciated that quote as well.
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:34:12] Thank you, thank you.
Mindy Peterson: [00:34:13] Well, thanks for this book. I’ll of course have link in the show notes to the book. Congratulations again on the release. And this being out into the world. Thank you. As you know. Yes. Of course. Uh, Doctor Simoyan, as you know, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending, a coda by sharing a song or story about a moment that music enhanced your life. Do you have a song or story that you can share with us today?
Olapeju Simoyan: [00:34:39] Well, what an opportunity. I just recorded my version of This Little Light of Mine. It’s a song that probably many of us grew up singing, whether in church or wherever. But this is my version. So the second and the third verses are my words. I made up, I made up my own lyrics to the second and third verses and we just recorded it. But that’s, um, uh, it’s meant to supplement the book because I believe that we let our light shine by telling these wonderful stories. Of women in medicine and helping each other, helping each other to shine. Um, telling people that, you know, there’s more than one way to be a doctor. And yeah, so I really believe that we let our light shine by bringing our whole selves to whatever we do. So if you’re a doctor and you’re a musical, you know, find a way of expressing yourself musically, whether you do it in the clinical setting or outside, if you’re an artist, um, the same thing. Don’t feel like you have to ignore part of who you are to be a doctor or to be anything. I’m talking about doctors, because that’s what I am, and that’s what I wrote about. But but this, I think, applies to anybody. Be the best version of yourself. And you do that by being your true self and bringing, bringing all your gifts and talents to whatever you do. So let your light shine. So the other verses that I made up were, um, let’s spread peace and joy and let’s spread love and light and help each other shine.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai