Jennifer Marie J. Yang, MD

A productive (but tiring) trip to the USA. Whew!

Conference #1 of 2: (Please don’t) Break a Leg: an Introduction to Performing Arts Medicine.

Ran a little over time because I asked the audience to stretch after sitting through 60 minutes of lectures from other people. But they needed it!

Grateful for the opportunity to share about #performingartsmedicine at the University of the Philippines Medical Alumni Society in America (UPMASA) 40th Annual Grand Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, July 1-4, 2025.

Conference #2 of 2: my favorite annual meeting, the Performing Arts Medicine Association 43rd International Symposium in Washington, DC, July 10-13, 2025 (pre-conference day on July 9).

#pamatakesdc2025 #performingartsmedicine #artsmed

But first, we had a pre-conference day dedicated to Occupational Health in Musicians. Our hosts from Johns Hopkins University sponsored the Occupational Health in Music Global Summit at their new-ish (2023) Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC. The truly interdisciplinary program was presented by the colleges of Medicine, Music, Public Health and Engineering, with the keynote speech being delivered by the director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). We had a demonstration of the smaller keyboard which makes playing safer and easier for pianists with small hands. A representative panel of experts from the steering committee for Position of Experts On Clinical Outcomes and Competencies (PEOCOC) presented our consensus and recommendations for musicians’ health in pre-professional tertiary education. Aside from being important for the individual’s health and injury prevention, the recommendations have wider ramifications because this will influence music education and musician identity formation – a cultural shift so we can take care of musicians better and keep them playing through their lifetimes. I’m on the projected slide somewhere, and you can also see the Philippines shaded in blue on the world map. There was also a world premiere of a Mental Health Performance: Oaks cut for the pyre – Robert Lowell’s poems set to music composed for soprano voice and bassoon, paired with quotes from musician interviews pertaining to their mental health.

Performing Arts Medicine Association 43rd International Symposium day 1. Johns Hopkins University host Bloomberg Distinguished Professor Kris Chesky in a Filipino barong Tagalog – a souvenir from his March 2025 trip to Manila and the University of the Philippines. We got to try out instruments during a workshop on medical issues of marching band members. We ended the conference day with a welcome reception on the rooftop with a view of the surrounding Washington, DC landmarks, and as a postscript – dinner (and good conversation) with medical school classmates at The Wharf DC along the Potomac.

Day 2 of the Performing Arts Medicine Association 43rd International Symposium saw the international debut of our PAMANA PH shirt (Performing Arts Medicine Advocates National Association of the Philippines). My classmate Fil presented the research on male dancers, and in the afternoon there was a powerhouse panel of speakers about menopause – changes in the body, especially on the pelvic floor and voice. Other notable talks today were on the postpartum patient, hypermobility effects on swallowing and voice and injuries in the theater world/backstage coverage. Finally, the highlight of each conference: the Participants’ Performance at which we were entertained by talented artists, some of whom are also researchers and healthcare professionals.

Back-to-back presentation duties done on day 3 of the Performing Arts Medicine Association 43rd International Symposium this morning. Started off with participating in an hour-long panel presentation on adaptive dance at 8 AM in which I discussed the clinical considerations in dancers with disabilities, followed almost immediately by a 3-minute spiel during the poster parade session introducing PAMANA PH to the world. PAMANA PH is our local Filipino special interest group – Performing Arts Medicine Advocates National Association of the Philippines. Grateful to co-panelists and poster co-authors! Over lunch we had an I-PAM (international performing arts medicine) meeting in which we connected with attendees from Australia, Europe, South America, North America and Asia.

A note on the poster: I got it printed on cloth which made it easy for me to fold and stick it into my luggage. Much easier than dragging a poster tube through 6 airports on this trip to get here (MNL-SIN-LAX-LAS-CLT-DCA) – I thought it was worth the difference in price of paper or tarpaulin vs. cloth).

It’s a wrap for the Performing Arts Medicine Association 43rd International Symposium on day 4, Sunday. The mood was laid back as the panelists had a lively discussion on PAM education for healthcare providers, followed by a few talks and finally the adjournment of the symposium. Bonus: our scholarly blanket of a research poster received an unexpected 2nd place award! Woohoo! It must have been the butterfly sleeves. Grateful for the blessings, including talented coauthors and the people who helped put the poster on display (especially those taller than me, almost all of them!)