Music and Medicine

Music, painting, and storytelling came together at the Ed Portal during “At the Still Point: medicine from the inside,” an event co-sponsored with the Harvard Medical School‘s Arts & Humanities Initiative that was the latest in an ongoing series of Ed Portal programming on the intersection of art and science. Dreamed up by musician and graduating medical student Ben Robison and physician artist Matthew Wetschler, this multimedia program promotes creative reflection and stillness as a way to connect to the vulnerability, intimacy, and wonder found within healthcare. The facilitators shared their own stories and the experiences of patients to explore issues including burnout and empathy. They invited the audience to recreate the sonic landscape of a hospital through a group musical exercise that reinforced the connections between the arts and healing. Appealing to physicians, caregivers, and anyone who has had experience with illness, Ben and Matthew offered up an evening as thought-provoking as it was moving.