What do you get when you place a medical microbiologist, a heart surgeon, a psychiatrist, a neurologist and anaesthetist in the same room...?
… As long as they have their instruments – some fantastic jazz!
The five belong to The Swing Doctors – a collection of Aberdeen medics who play music for fun.
Now they are hoping their fun will also bring in some funds for a new multi-million pound centre being built at Foresterhill to teach medical students and health professionals.
For The Swing Doctors have recorded their very first CD which they are selling in support of the Matthew Hay Project.
And proceeds from At Last – named after one of the band's favourite tracks and featuring Dutch vocalist Joke van Welsenes – might help pave the way for the creation in the new centre's grounds of a walkway bearing the names of renowned Aberdeen figures who have helped shape modern medicine.
Like the Matthew Hay Project, the Swing Doctors are a University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian collaboration who originally started out in the 90s at a staff-student musical night at the Medical School.
Professor Hamish McKenzie - a Medical Microbiologist - makes up the University contingent of The Swing Doctors on keyboards.
From NHS Grampian comes clarinet player John Cockburn, a retired heart surgeon who was a central figure in the 1980s campaign to secure funding for cardiac surgery in Aberdeen. He is joined by Dr Rainer Goldbeck – a psychiatrist by day and guitarist by night; double bass player Dr Richard Coleman who is a neurologist and Dr Harry McFarlane who plays drums when he is not anaesthetising patients.
Professor McKenzie, who is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Medicine and chairs the Matthew Hay Project Operational Group, organised the recording. He said: "This recording has been great fun and has allowed us to combine an enjoyable hobby with fundraising for a project that is an important landmark for healthcare education within both the University and NHS Grampian."
The Swing Doctors' CD will be on sale on Fridays between noon and 2pm at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's hospital art gallery. Priced £10, it can also be ordered by emailing href="mailto:cd@abdn.ac.uk" title="mailto:cd@abdn.ac.uk">cd@abdn.ac.uk</a>.</p>
The Matthew Hay Project is a joint initiative between the University and NHS Grampian to build a new state of the art teaching and learning centre on the Foresterhill site. For more info see: http://www.abdn.ac.uk/clsm/matthewhay/