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In This Issue:
John Lewis, MD, of Faulkner Hospital, and Jennifer Baima, MD, are among the Partners physicians performing with the Boston Pops Orchestra on May 20. At right, Baima plays the “basin bells.”
As a specialist in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Jennifer A. Baima, MD, is familiar with the uses of a reflex hammer. But she hammered a different beat last month when she joined a group of Partners physicians on stage with the Boston Pops Orchestra, using the hammer and a hanging display of bed pans and basins to make music with a new “instrument,” aptly called “basin bells.”
Baima and other medical music makers took the stage at the 14th annual “Partners Night at the Pops: A Celebration in Honor of Our Physicians,” on May 20 at Symphony Hall. Conductor Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra performed numerous musical selections, complementing this year’s “Mardi Gras at Pops” theme. Nearly 1,000 Partners physicians and their guests attended the concert, which featured the lively New Orleans jazz band, the Dukes of Dixieland.
The highlight of the concert was when Partners’ own “Physician Talent”—Baima among them—made their Symphony Hall debut, performing live on stage with the Pops. Dubbed the “Docs of Dixieland” by Lockhart, the eight physicians from across the Partners system paraded into Symphony Hall in true Mardi Gras style, passing out beads and coins as they wound their way to the stage. Maestro Lockhart then led physicians in a performance of “Tiger Rag,” with each of the doctors playing different percussion instruments, some of which were creatively customized medical devices, such as the IV bass, skele-tone and stetho-phone.
In addition to knocking out a few tunes on the basin bells, Baima also played a stetho-phone—an adapted stethoscope that made the sounds of a whistle or a kazoo.
The Partners Night at the Pops event serves as a way for Partners HealthCare and its affiliated hospitals to thank the dedicated physicians from across the system and provide them with a forum to network with their colleagues.