You read the title correctly. Check and neuropathsongs.com and read what happens when a neuro-pathologist plays the guitar:
Years ago, during Dr. Arie Perry’s pathology training, one of his attendings challenged the residents to make their conference presentations more “entertaining”. Taking this to heart, he presented a schwannoma (benign tumor of nerve) the following week. Following the traditional viewing of the case around a multi-headed teaching microscope, he pulled out a guitar and sang a brand new composition: the “schwannoma song”. Several years later, it occurred to him that music might provide students with a highly enjoyable and more efficient way to learn some key facts about common disorders of the nervous system. In fact, science tells us that musical memory is often superior to pure rote memory. Once laid down, these musical memories also tend to be retained longer; learning your ABCs with the alphabet song as a child is a good example.
Recalling his own experiences as a medical student with literally thousands of hours of dry lectures presented in rapid succession, Arie felt that Neuropathology songs could provide a novel and refreshing way to learn, when used as a supplement to more conventional approaches. This technique of teaching Neuropathology has since been covered in media reports by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Washington University Record, KWMU radio station, National Public Radio’s (NPR) Marketplace, and the Singer Network, a service of Chorus America.
The current collection of Neuropathology songs is specifically targeted to medical trainees and professionals. The songs cover a wide array of topics, although Dr. Perry has lectured most often on brain tumors and infections, so these topics are more heavily represented. They have been employed primarily for teaching medical students, with whom they’ve been enthusiastically embraced. As word of this practice spread however, Arie was increasingly asked to include his songs in invited lectures nationally and internationally to well-established medical specialists and even to the lay public in a “Mini Medical School Course”, both associated with glowingly positive feedback. Increasingly, Dr. Perry also received requests to share his songs with educators and students from other medical centers, in part prompting him to create the current CD.
In extremely rare cases, a student has misinterpreted these songs as trivializing patient suffering. However, nothing could be further from the truth! Being factual in nature, these songs were created specifically to help medical professionals remember the salient features of common diseases. Where the prognosis is favorable or recent progress has been made, the positive aspects are heavily emphasized. Nonetheless, where we still have a long way to go towards effective therapy, these limitations are highlighted in the hope that some trainees will be inspired to enter the field and find ways to further improve the standard of care for these patients. Short of that goal, the hope is simply that the student of Neuropathology lays down some medically useful, long term musical memories and if they have fun in the process despite the seriousness of the topic, all the better!
 | Neuropathy Songs Arie Perry ©2009 16 total tracks | Buy All 16 Mp3s $12.00 | |
Click the title of any song to hear a sample. Click LYRICS to see the words. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE
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| Neuropathology Introduction (Oh Holy Night) | $.99 | ||
| Multiple Sclerosis | $.99 | ||
| Leukodystrophies (Greensleeves) | $.99 | ||
| Astrocytic Tumors | $.99 | ||
| Oligodendroglioma | $.99 | ||
| PNET (Danny Boy) | $.99 | ||
| Meningiomas | $.99 | ||
| Schwannoma | $.99 | ||
| Craniopharyngioma (Una Furtiva Lagrima) | $.99 | ||
| Cerebrovascular Disorders (Aura Lee) | $.99 | ||
| Parkinson’s Disease (Torna Surriento) | $.99 | ||
| Alzheimer’s Disease (Silent Night) | $.99 | ||
| CJD | $.99 | ||
| Acute Meningitis (Amazing Grace) | $.99 | ||
| Encephalitis | $.99 | ||
| Toxoplasmosis (O’ Sole Mio) | $.99 | ||
