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Dr. Rupa Marya is a typical academic hospitalist for about half the year, managing acutely ill patients and teaching residents at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center. But the rest of the time, she’s traveling the world and writing music with her alternative rock band, Rupa & the April Fishes.
Dr. Marya has been a hospitalist at UCSF since she finished her residency there in 2007. Her focus has been on examining health and disease patterns based on social determinants, and communicating with patients about end-of-life care decisions. She also works at a free clinic in San Francisco’s Mission district, the Clinica Martin Baro, where UCSF medical students and faculty provide low-cost primary care to low-income and undocumented patients.
Over the last 7 years, Dr. Marya and her bandmates (Aaron Kierbel, Safa Shokrai, Misha Khalikulov, and Mario Alberto Silva) have recorded four albums that draw on different genres and languages. The lyrics, whether in French, Spanish, or English, have a romantic sound but tackle thorny social issues ranging from the struggles of immigrants to the government’s practice of rendition. Listen to their music here.
In an interview with Hospitalist News, Dr. Marya explains how she is able to juggle two challenging careers and get the best out of both worlds.
Question: When did you decide to seriously pursue both music and medicine as careers?
Dr. Marya: Throughout my education, I was equally drawn to science and the humanities. I developed these interests in a parallel fashion throughout college, where I studied molecular biology and political theater. I didn’t clearly see a path until I was in my intern year of my medicine residency at UCSF. I spoke with my program directors about my belief that I would be a better physician if I could find a way to balance my work as an artist and that my art would thrive if I could find a way to maintain my development as a physician. They have supported my exploration ever since, and after residency, I came on as a faculty member with this schedule that is divided between my time working on music and my time at the hospital.
Question: How do you juggle the demands of working in the hospital and also touring and recording with your band?
Dr. Marya: I work 4-6 months a year in the hospital and the rest of my time with the band. We have been touring 5-6 months a year for the past 7 years. I could not do this without the full support of the division of hospitalist medicine at UCSF. The leadership and culture of our division is incredible in creating a place in which physicians are encouraged to manifest their full potential and to bring that experience to the table with who they are as physicians and educators. Bob Wachter, our division chief, was my residency director and now continues as a mentor and leader of our division. If every hospital had a leader like him, we’d have a more inspired health care system.
The lifestyle of being a hospitalist works in perfect balance for me. I love managing the acuity of illness, having the opportunity to teach, and getting the unique lens into social situations that hospital medicine gives. Being with patients at times of important transitions as well as learning about the determinants of social and physical disease are inspiring to my work as an artist and thinker.
Question: How do you think music affects the way you treat patients?
Dr. Marya: Music teaches me how to listen. I feel the deeper I get into my practice of music, the better listener I am. There’s a flexibility to my mind that I also attribute to my work in art that helps me in more challenging clinical problems. When I come back to the hospital from the road, I feel refreshed and excited, each time.
There are times when I say, whether on stage looking out at an audience or leaving the room after a profound exchange with a family, "I can’t believe this is my life!" I feel grateful to all the people who have helped me, taught me, and shown me the way – patients, mentors, managers, agents, audience members, sound crew, backstage helpers, my band, and my family.
Question: You write your own music. Do you ever get song ideas from your interactions with patients?
Dr. Marya: I believe at the root, my music is inspired by the transitory nature of life and the demand I feel to celebrate that life in us when it is here. Every contact I have with someone’s true experience, stripped of pretense and raw in front of me, is inspiration. Being at the transition of life and death – sometimes in a person’s home, sometimes in the hospital, sometimes on the side of the road – that highlights this intensely special moment of being alive right now and being in the presence of another being. To be witnessed and to witness. To accompany someone in their journey. These things are what inspire and fuel my art.
Question: What’s next for you and your band?
Dr. Marya: Indianapolis. A tour of Europe this summer. I will be speaking and the band will be performing this year at TEDMED. I am currently recording an album of string quartet versions of my songs arranged by brilliant composer Mark Orton, together with Todd Sickafoose and Quartet San Francisco. We are trying to build a better model for sustainability for artists, which is truly difficult in an age in which people believe in some way that music should be free. We hope to be touring Asia, Central America, and Australia before next summer.
Question: What advice do you have for young physicians who have an outside interest they want to continue?
Dr. Marya: Discover and make space for your bliss – it will cost you something, but do not be afraid of that cost because your bliss is what will make you a truly incredible clinician. Whatever will bring you bliss will be of utmost importance to your patients because your joy and balance will radiate to them in the time they most need it. It will also bring you the patience to see how you can best accompany them in their need. Do not be afraid to articulate your unique path and to seek support along the way.
Surprisingly, I have found more wholehearted support for my work in medicine than in the music industry, which is far more conservative than the culture in medicine. Do not believe the naysayers. And never be afraid to articulate your truth, no matter how contradictory it may seem. It will help everyone around you to be more courageous and through that, we can develop a system of more humane and intact health care as visionary caregivers.
Take us to your leader. Nominate a hospitalist whose work inspires you. E-mail suggestions to [email protected]. Read previous columns at ehospitalistnews.com.
On Twitter @maryellenny
Dr. Rupa Marya is a typical academic hospitalist for about half the year, managing acutely ill patients and teaching residents at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center. But the rest of the time, she’s traveling the world and writing music with her alternative rock band, Rupa & the April Fishes.
Dr. Marya has been a hospitalist at UCSF since she finished her residency there in 2007. Her focus has been on examining health and disease patterns based on social determinants, and communicating with patients about end-of-life care decisions. She also works at a free clinic in San Francisco’s Mission district, the Clinica Martin Baro, where UCSF medical students and faculty provide low-cost primary care to low-income and undocumented patients.
Over the last 7 years, Dr. Marya and her bandmates (Aaron Kierbel, Safa Shokrai, Misha Khalikulov, and Mario Alberto Silva) have recorded four albums that draw on different genres and languages. The lyrics, whether in French, Spanish, or English, have a romantic sound but tackle thorny social issues ranging from the struggles of immigrants to the government’s practice of rendition. Listen to their music here.
In an interview with Hospitalist News, Dr. Marya explains how she is able to juggle two challenging careers and get the best out of both worlds.
Question: When did you decide to seriously pursue both music and medicine as careers?
Dr. Marya: Throughout my education, I was equally drawn to science and the humanities. I developed these interests in a parallel fashion throughout college, where I studied molecular biology and political theater. I didn’t clearly see a path until I was in my intern year of my medicine residency at UCSF. I spoke with my program directors about my belief that I would be a better physician if I could find a way to balance my work as an artist and that my art would thrive if I could find a way to maintain my development as a physician. They have supported my exploration ever since, and after residency, I came on as a faculty member with this schedule that is divided between my time working on music and my time at the hospital.
Question: How do you juggle the demands of working in the hospital and also touring and recording with your band?
Dr. Marya: I work 4-6 months a year in the hospital and the rest of my time with the band. We have been touring 5-6 months a year for the past 7 years. I could not do this without the full support of the division of hospitalist medicine at UCSF. The leadership and culture of our division is incredible in creating a place in which physicians are encouraged to manifest their full potential and to bring that experience to the table with who they are as physicians and educators. Bob Wachter, our division chief, was my residency director and now continues as a mentor and leader of our division. If every hospital had a leader like him, we’d have a more inspired health care system.
The lifestyle of being a hospitalist works in perfect balance for me. I love managing the acuity of illness, having the opportunity to teach, and getting the unique lens into social situations that hospital medicine gives. Being with patients at times of important transitions as well as learning about the determinants of social and physical disease are inspiring to my work as an artist and thinker.
Question: How do you think music affects the way you treat patients?
Dr. Marya: Music teaches me how to listen. I feel the deeper I get into my practice of music, the better listener I am. There’s a flexibility to my mind that I also attribute to my work in art that helps me in more challenging clinical problems. When I come back to the hospital from the road, I feel refreshed and excited, each time.
There are times when I say, whether on stage looking out at an audience or leaving the room after a profound exchange with a family, "I can’t believe this is my life!" I feel grateful to all the people who have helped me, taught me, and shown me the way – patients, mentors, managers, agents, audience members, sound crew, backstage helpers, my band, and my family.
Question: You write your own music. Do you ever get song ideas from your interactions with patients?
Dr. Marya: I believe at the root, my music is inspired by the transitory nature of life and the demand I feel to celebrate that life in us when it is here. Every contact I have with someone’s true experience, stripped of pretense and raw in front of me, is inspiration. Being at the transition of life and death – sometimes in a person’s home, sometimes in the hospital, sometimes on the side of the road – that highlights this intensely special moment of being alive right now and being in the presence of another being. To be witnessed and to witness. To accompany someone in their journey. These things are what inspire and fuel my art.
Question: What’s next for you and your band?
Dr. Marya: Indianapolis. A tour of Europe this summer. I will be speaking and the band will be performing this year at TEDMED. I am currently recording an album of string quartet versions of my songs arranged by brilliant composer Mark Orton, together with Todd Sickafoose and Quartet San Francisco. We are trying to build a better model for sustainability for artists, which is truly difficult in an age in which people believe in some way that music should be free. We hope to be touring Asia, Central America, and Australia before next summer.
Question: What advice do you have for young physicians who have an outside interest they want to continue?
Dr. Marya: Discover and make space for your bliss – it will cost you something, but do not be afraid of that cost because your bliss is what will make you a truly incredible clinician. Whatever will bring you bliss will be of utmost importance to your patients because your joy and balance will radiate to them in the time they most need it. It will also bring you the patience to see how you can best accompany them in their need. Do not be afraid to articulate your unique path and to seek support along the way.
Surprisingly, I have found more wholehearted support for my work in medicine than in the music industry, which is far more conservative than the culture in medicine. Do not believe the naysayers. And never be afraid to articulate your truth, no matter how contradictory it may seem. It will help everyone around you to be more courageous and through that, we can develop a system of more humane and intact health care as visionary caregivers.
Take us to your leader. Nominate a hospitalist whose work inspires you. E-mail suggestions to [email protected]. Read previous columns at ehospitalistnews.com.
On Twitter @maryellenny
Dr. Rupa Marya is a typical academic hospitalist for about half the year, managing acutely ill patients and teaching residents at the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center. But the rest of the time, she’s traveling the world and writing music with her alternative rock band, Rupa & the April Fishes.
Dr. Marya has been a hospitalist at UCSF since she finished her residency there in 2007. Her focus has been on examining health and disease patterns based on social determinants, and communicating with patients about end-of-life care decisions. She also works at a free clinic in San Francisco’s Mission district, the Clinica Martin Baro, where UCSF medical students and faculty provide low-cost primary care to low-income and undocumented patients.
Over the last 7 years, Dr. Marya and her bandmates (Aaron Kierbel, Safa Shokrai, Misha Khalikulov, and Mario Alberto Silva) have recorded four albums that draw on different genres and languages. The lyrics, whether in French, Spanish, or English, have a romantic sound but tackle thorny social issues ranging from the struggles of immigrants to the government’s practice of rendition. Listen to their music here.
In an interview with Hospitalist News, Dr. Marya explains how she is able to juggle two challenging careers and get the best out of both worlds.
Question: When did you decide to seriously pursue both music and medicine as careers?
Dr. Marya: Throughout my education, I was equally drawn to science and the humanities. I developed these interests in a parallel fashion throughout college, where I studied molecular biology and political theater. I didn’t clearly see a path until I was in my intern year of my medicine residency at UCSF. I spoke with my program directors about my belief that I would be a better physician if I could find a way to balance my work as an artist and that my art would thrive if I could find a way to maintain my development as a physician. They have supported my exploration ever since, and after residency, I came on as a faculty member with this schedule that is divided between my time working on music and my time at the hospital.
Question: How do you juggle the demands of working in the hospital and also touring and recording with your band?
Dr. Marya: I work 4-6 months a year in the hospital and the rest of my time with the band. We have been touring 5-6 months a year for the past 7 years. I could not do this without the full support of the division of hospitalist medicine at UCSF. The leadership and culture of our division is incredible in creating a place in which physicians are encouraged to manifest their full potential and to bring that experience to the table with who they are as physicians and educators. Bob Wachter, our division chief, was my residency director and now continues as a mentor and leader of our division. If every hospital had a leader like him, we’d have a more inspired health care system.
The lifestyle of being a hospitalist works in perfect balance for me. I love managing the acuity of illness, having the opportunity to teach, and getting the unique lens into social situations that hospital medicine gives. Being with patients at times of important transitions as well as learning about the determinants of social and physical disease are inspiring to my work as an artist and thinker.
Question: How do you think music affects the way you treat patients?
Dr. Marya: Music teaches me how to listen. I feel the deeper I get into my practice of music, the better listener I am. There’s a flexibility to my mind that I also attribute to my work in art that helps me in more challenging clinical problems. When I come back to the hospital from the road, I feel refreshed and excited, each time.
There are times when I say, whether on stage looking out at an audience or leaving the room after a profound exchange with a family, "I can’t believe this is my life!" I feel grateful to all the people who have helped me, taught me, and shown me the way – patients, mentors, managers, agents, audience members, sound crew, backstage helpers, my band, and my family.
Question: You write your own music. Do you ever get song ideas from your interactions with patients?
Dr. Marya: I believe at the root, my music is inspired by the transitory nature of life and the demand I feel to celebrate that life in us when it is here. Every contact I have with someone’s true experience, stripped of pretense and raw in front of me, is inspiration. Being at the transition of life and death – sometimes in a person’s home, sometimes in the hospital, sometimes on the side of the road – that highlights this intensely special moment of being alive right now and being in the presence of another being. To be witnessed and to witness. To accompany someone in their journey. These things are what inspire and fuel my art.
Question: What’s next for you and your band?
Dr. Marya: Indianapolis. A tour of Europe this summer. I will be speaking and the band will be performing this year at TEDMED. I am currently recording an album of string quartet versions of my songs arranged by brilliant composer Mark Orton, together with Todd Sickafoose and Quartet San Francisco. We are trying to build a better model for sustainability for artists, which is truly difficult in an age in which people believe in some way that music should be free. We hope to be touring Asia, Central America, and Australia before next summer.
Question: What advice do you have for young physicians who have an outside interest they want to continue?
Dr. Marya: Discover and make space for your bliss – it will cost you something, but do not be afraid of that cost because your bliss is what will make you a truly incredible clinician. Whatever will bring you bliss will be of utmost importance to your patients because your joy and balance will radiate to them in the time they most need it. It will also bring you the patience to see how you can best accompany them in their need. Do not be afraid to articulate your unique path and to seek support along the way.
Surprisingly, I have found more wholehearted support for my work in medicine than in the music industry, which is far more conservative than the culture in medicine. Do not believe the naysayers. And never be afraid to articulate your truth, no matter how contradictory it may seem. It will help everyone around you to be more courageous and through that, we can develop a system of more humane and intact health care as visionary caregivers.
Take us to your leader. Nominate a hospitalist whose work inspires you. E-mail suggestions to [email protected]. Read previous columns at ehospitalistnews.com.
On Twitter @maryellenny
