Penn Med a cappella group performs for patients

What appear to be words taken from a science textbook are in fact musical lyrics. Sing them to the tune of The Little Mermaid’s “Kiss the Girl,” add a few sopranos and tenors, and you have UltraSounds, a Penn a cappella group composed solely of medical students.

UltraSounds was founded in 2008 by current third-year School of Medicine students, after a similar group called Arrhythmia — in medical terms, a condition in which the heart pumps irregularly — faded out two years earlier.

In addition to parodies performed exclusively for peers, the group’s approximately 35 members sing original versions of popular songs like The Beatles’ “Let It Be” and Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time” for patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The group will also begin performing at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia on Oct. 7.

According to Yin Li, a third-year medical student and one of UltraSounds’ founders, singing offers students a way “to directly interact with patients” — particularly during students’ first year when they have limited contact with patients.

The group’s monthly performances are organized through Musicians on Call, a national nonprofit that arranges for musicians to go “room-to-room performing at the bedsides of chronic and/or non-ambulatory patients,” said Michael Hill, the organization’s director of volunteers and programming.

The group also performs independently at Living Independently for Elders, or LIFE, a center run by the School of Nursing.

Third-year medical student and UltraSounds co-founder Brian Finkelman said one of his most “powerful” memories with the group was when it first performed at LIFE for advanced Alzheimer’s patients. Once the group began singing, “you could tell that you captured something deep within them,” he said, adding that even the woman in charge of the division began to cry.

But the same group that moves patients with renditions of “Hallelujah” and “Seasons of Love” also entertains their peers with parodied versions of the popular songs.

The spoofs are written and performed for classmates and cover material learned in each medical course. Subjects range from reproduction to hematology — for example, “Ovulation” is set to the tune of “Kiss the Girl,” while “Hepatitis Night” uses the tune of “Silent Night”.

“It’s so easy to get wrapped up in studying every day … and getting stressed out about exams, and then you get to come here and forget about all that stress because everyone’s smiling for two hours,” second-year medical student Christina Pasick said.

While some members have musical or performance backgrounds, UltraSounds does not hold auditions.

“It’s not about being the best,” second-year medical student Caroline Nelson said. “If you have a desire to go sing to patients, you should.”

Witty spoofs of medical school material offer a “creative outlet … from studying molecules,” according to Finkelman, but UltraSounds members also find satisfaction in entertaining patients as an extension of the career for which they are studying.

“Most times, when patients see you in a white coat, it’s because you’re trying to treat them for a physical ailment,” Nelson said. “In this case, we’re showing another face of the white coat … it’s a different way of healing and showing that you care.”

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