Music and Medicine

After I finished singing my last note at the Apollo Theater, I closed my eyes and indulged in the final tunes from my song being played by one of the greatest bands in the country.

It’s funny, I wanted to be a professional singer when I was younger. I'm not talking about the fifth grade “I want to be a singer when I grow up” speeches. I actually took an entire year off after graduation to pursue my music. Now I'm currently getting my MPH in Health Policy and Management.

When I stepped off the stage of the Apollo Amateur Night competition and eventually took the A train back to Washington Heights I couldn't stop myself from reminiscing on the path that brought me here.

I started off in a small rural-town in Alma, Michigan where my parents were both practicing physicians. Having admired their breadth of knowledge, technical skills, and their compassion toward their patients, I had decided long ago that I wanted to follow in their footsteps. Yet, all the while, I was developing my skills in music, something that caused a lot of internal conflict. 

During my undergrad, I took vocal lessons to improve my range and tone and competed in competitions around Ann Arbor. I watched my videos like a football player watches tapes to understand their mistakes, after crunching a full undergrad into three years, I graduated with a degree in biology, and realized that my inner conflicts were just beginning.

My two dreams pulled me in two directions and I knew, with my limited time and resources, I had to choose just one. When I saw American Idol was coming to Detroit that spring, I took it as a sign and made the decision to pursue music. I went on to become a finalist in the group round of the biggest singing show in America and, just so you know, Harry Connick Jr. is as charming in person as he is on the screen.

Even though I didn’t win, I didn’t have the same urge to try again. It was an amazing feeling of satisfaction that I had achieved something and could finally put it away and focus on my other dream. Along the way, I developed important skills in creativity, judgement, and the ability to perform under pressure. As carefully as I had crafted my path to becoming the singer I wanted to be, I used the same desire to pursue medicine.

As an undergrad, I studied the virulence proteins of the leading opportunistic pathogen for HIV/AIDs patients in sub-Saharan Africa, the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans.  After the Idol stage, I returned to another C. neoformans lab at the University of Minnesota as a research scientist. I worked with an experimental drug that could potentially remove fungal cells from immunocompromised patients afflicted with HIV/AIDS.

Working in the lab, I felt that my research had come full-circle. My desire was to combat the disease and that is exactly what I had been able to contribute to the field of science.

Yet, I began questioning things outside of efficacy and viability and wondered how HIV/AIDs patients would afford and receive the drug, or how they would even get to the clinic. I started to think about the barriers to accessing healthcare and the role of preventative measures. While I was peering at cells through a microscope, my calling to medicine was leading me to think about patient care.

And that curiosity and desire to understand ways to improve healthcare led me to public health.

I chose Columbia University specifically for its Core curriculum. I was afraid that with my science-heavy background, I didn't have a proper understanding of public health. The Core helped me develop a strong understanding of the different components of public health and instilled in me a desire to make significant changes for the betterment of our society.

Health policies affect every corner of our healthcare system. Being able to understand how policies work is crucial to understanding the future of healthcare, and that's why I chose to study in the Health Policy and Management department with a certificate in Health Policy Analysis. And what I've learned has helped me understand the causes of disease from a sociological perspective.

For my summer internship, I will be working with Partners HealthCare in Boston, MA where I will be using my public health knowledge to monitor healthcare trends and provide consulting support to create recommendations for healthcare problems. This will, yet again, allow me to work with healthcare at the macro-level and to understand patient access and care from a vantage point that I have not previously had. 

Having achieved my dreams of becoming the best singer I could be, and with my background in research and public health, I now believe that I am ready to pursue the final leg of my journey into medicine.

By Priya Vedula, Health Policy and Management, MPH '17

If you would like to contribute to Mailman Student Voices, please send a three to five-sentence pitch outlining your topic to mailmancomm@columbia.edu.