Episode Details

Connecting two unrelated fields can lead to world-changing discoveries. Dr. Claudius Conrad has led both the medical and music industry in combining music and surgery, revolutionizing laparoscopic robotic surgery and the approach surgeons take to building their teams and healing their patients. 

Joining Fran Racioppi as the first in-person guest of the podcast, Dr. Conrad explains how the use of music can not only facilitate the healing process in patients, but also improve the performance of surgeons and other healthcare professionals in the operating room itself. Listen in to learn how being a Steinway & Sons music composer and a German Special Forces Sniper have propelled him to lead the world in minimally invasive pancreatic surgery; and vice-versa! 

Read the full episode transcription here and learn more on The Jedburgh Podcast Website.

Highlights:

-An explanation of the connection between music and surgical medicine in terms of skill comparison, precision, zero tolerance for failure and both as a “performance.”

-Dr. Conrad talks about his recruitment into the German Special Forces Sniper unit and his double major in medicine and music.

-Discussion on the mindset and preparation required to become  an elite surgeon and an elite pianist; the need to work everyday towards the goals.

-Dr. Conrad details how to create a recording album and speaks about his piano album Healing Hands.

-Fran & Dr. Conrad engage in a detailed discussion on Minimally Invasive Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Surgery and Robotic Laparoscopic surgery and how Dr. Conrad leads the medical industry in the use of robots in this field.

-Discussion on the Whipple Procedure and the increase of pancreatic cancer diagnosis over the last 30 years. 

-Dr. Conrad discusses how he organizes and builds his teams of elite surgeons. What he looks for and how he uses music to form bonds between the team. 

-Tips on how to manage a group of top performers in a multi-disciplinary team unified by the medical profession tenets of “do no harm” and “for the best of the patient.” 

-Analysis of the generational shift in medicine from the baby b