Jennifer Marie J. Yang, MD

The University of the Philippines College of Medicine has this regular Tuesday morning conference for “anything under the sun that is related to medicine but can’t fit in the curriculum”. In preparation for the annual variety show Tao Rin Pala (TRP) next month, our Performing Arts Medicine team from the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine collaborated with the college’s Committee on Student Resiliency and Wellness to bring practical tips for medical students/performing artists.

Because we are physiatrists who like to say “exercise is medicine”, our four talks included a stretch-and-move “intermission”. We hit some technical glitches but true to performing artists form, we did some ad-libbing by having the students go through the five basic ballet positions and practiced some time management by starting the open forum early.

Huge congratulations and kudos to our department’s Performing Arts Medicine team! All in all, I think we all learned a lot from each other and I hope the students remember our advice in this last month before the variety show. The talks were recorded and hopefully they will be online and available soon.

PS: It was truly a full circle moment, part information session and part career talk – we UP Medicine alumni speakers fondly talked about our TRP experiences in medical school and how they shaped our choice of medical specialty. And I borrowed (snuck in?) one slide from my medical humanities lecture because the arts do make you a better doctor 🙂