Dagmar Turner, a violinist, was awakened in the middle of brain surgery to play the violin to make sure the areas of her brain responsible for fine motor control were not damaged [2020].

Turner played the violin while undergoing significant surgery to remove a tumour that threatened the part of her brain responsible for the precise control of her left hand.

Professor Keyoumars Ashkan, a consultant neurosurgeon at King’s College Hospital, devised a strategy to map her brain, open the skull, and then get her to play while they removed the tumour, all to protect her violin skills.

Innovation often occurs when two unrelated sectors come together and create new solutions:

Art + Technology = Apple products

Cars + Technology = Self drive cars

Health Care + Technology = Wearable health monitoring devices

Education + Technology = Udemy

Energy + Technology = Solar and wind power, and smart grid technologies

Music + Technology = iTunes

Money + Technology = Crypto

Retail + Technology = e-commerce, mobile payments

Innovation is when Professor Keyoumars Ashkan combined his expertise in surgery with his patient playing the violin, to successfully remove a brain tumour.

This is where science meets art, the frontiers of human efficiencies get put to a real test. I’m glad the operation went well.

Science is mind-blowing [pun intended] 🙂