Performance—What Can We Learn from Musicians?

My chapter on elite athletes and Sports PsychologySports Psychology attempted to extract techniques for enhancing the surgeon’s performanceSurgeon's performance in the moment of, and the preparation for, surgerySurgery. I examined technique at the micro-level looking for marginal gains. However, athletes are tested regularly in competitions and ranked. Their performances are manifest and can easily be judged, less so for surgeons. SimulatorsSimulators help the surgeon ‘practice to perform’ but only at the start of the learning curve. How is performance enhanced at higher levels and how would we know if we succeeded? In this chapter I want to look at musiciansMusicians and what might be learned from them in terms of performance, practice and virtuosity. I want to ask the question ‘are we aiming high enough as surgeons?’ Like athletes, a musician’s performance is more manifest and more easily judged than a surgeons’ but it does have a greater ‘subjective’ element. I want to investigate what it takes to become very good, to become exceptional to become a concert pianist, and then see what might be imitated in the pursuit of greatness and the level of commitment required. Can we achieve virtuosity in surgery?