Advice from One Musician to Another: Beware of Friends Bearing Gifts

Abstract

In my last editorial, in the June 2003 issue, I discussed the importance of accuracy in communications between performing arts medicine practitioners and their patients. In this editorial, I deal with an even more delicate subject, the nature of medical communications from one musician to another. Occasional musicians who have come for my medical evaluation will quote prior diagnostic opinions voiced by their stand-partners and other fellow musicians. However, this editorial was precipitated not by this observation but by the increasing number of books by musicians for musicians.