I have always been a fan of music and this extends to my workspace. I feel that listening to music while I work aids my skills as a radiologist and allows me to perform better. When it’s busy, I favour relaxing jazz or light pop or even classical music and when it’s slow, peppy rock (of the Beatles or Queen kind) which can keep the energy levels up.
This is a relic of my student days when, preparing for Board Exams and the like, my radio-cassette recorder was my faithful companion while I was burning the midnight oil.
At work it is something of a joke, as we have piped music through an overhead system, and this typically gets switched on just as I arrive in the office. Also, I am somewhat dictatorial in terms of insisting on the type of music played, and so when I leave the office the democracy takes over and Bollywood replaces the western music, so much so that a vendor and frequent visitor to our office once told me he could always tell when I am travelling by the nature of the music being played overhead!
At RSNA this year, I had the good fortune of a genuine musical treat in the form of a Blues evening at Reggie’s Bar in Chicago – a special RSNA event where the lead guitarist was Dr Ari Mintz, a radiologist who is also a good friend, and I learned, a stellar guitarist. Ari and the rest of his talented group played some outstanding blues and rocked the place, to the delight of the visiting radiologists from around the world, some of whom began to spontaneously shake a leg in the course of the evening. A truly memorable RSNA experience!
Here in TRS, we have a small but dedicated band of musicians, called the Teleradiators, who perform at our office events. And some of us like to sing along..
Is there something about music that allows the synapses in our brains to function more optimally? Based on my personal experience I would say yes! Perhaps a functional MR study on the subject is in order…