Scene on Campus

Stethoscopes and lederhosen?

Med students on stage—but it’s not the operating theater.

Second-year medical students, costumed—sort of—as the von Trapp family singers, took to the stage this February, singing “OPQ” to the tune of The Sound of Music’s “Do-Re-Mi.” What’s OPQ? A mnemonic (med school is full of mnemonics) for what to ask patients about their symptoms: O for onset, P for provocation, Q for quality. Jacob Weatherly ’16MD, shown here leading the performance in a white coat, wrote the lyrics. The occasion was the annual show given by the second-year class, which tradition says has been around for more than 50 years. According to med student and producer Jessica Ye (far right), about 80 percent of the class participated in the production, which was seen by more than 800 people during its two-night run in Harkness Auditorium. The plot was premised on the notion that the school’s new curriculum (see “Med School With Less Pain”) might threaten the show’s future, so the students set out to save it. In the finale, students learn the show will go on, welcome the new curriculum, and dance to Kesha and Pitbull’s “Timber.”

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