Jennifer Marie J. Yang, MD

After months of planning, yesterday we had the first session of what singer and medical doctor Leslie Diaz (“Doc Les”) has dubbed “Ginhawit” – using singing as a means for pulmonary rehabilitation. He combined the Filipino words “ginhawa” (comfort, relief) and “awit” (song) to come up with this witty title. According to the American National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, pulmonary rehabilitation is a “supervised medical program that helps people who have lung diseases live and breathe better. You may need pulmonary rehabilitation if you have a lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). During the program, you will learn exercises and breathing techniques.”

The participants were all “graduates” of the PulmoCARE program – a joint rehabilitation program administered by the Department of Medicine’s Division of Pulmonary Medicine and our Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at the Philippine General Hospital. In this first of eight sessions, Doc Les introduced his teaching method and had the participants perform some vocalizations to help him figure out their respective vocal ranges. While some participants had prior voice training as choir members, others needed a little help to get their pitches right. The program was well-received by the enthusiastic individuals who will be meeting twice a week for four weeks. Their final project will be a “recital” of sorts, performing at Disability Week celebrations in mid-July. The English National Opera did a similar singing program to help COVID-19 patients recover, and you can read about it here, or watch a video here.

Here is the link to Doc Les’ facebook post where you can read more about his experience and view some photos of the day’s singing session. Exciting times for collaboration between our two “M” colleges – the University of the Philippines College of Medicine (Manila) and the College of Music (Diliman).