Dickson Fung

As a music student with a medical background, I have encountered numerous promising performers who have suffered injuries and had to take significant amounts of time away from playing due to pain. In fact, research indicates that musculoskeletal injury among musicians is high and affects between 37% and 49% of performers at some time or other. However, whereas sports medicine is now a well-established discipline, this is a new field of specialised medicine and there are very few resources in New Zealand to help performing artists. Indeed, the programme at UCL is the only Masters level programme of its type worldwide taught at a major English speaking institute. In addition to the MSc in Performing Arts Medicine at UCL, I had the opportunity to further my violin studies at Trinity College of Music/ Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance. This was important since I was using the experience from these further studies of violin technique to explore string players’ injuries from a performer's perspective. This complemented my medical studies at UCL to gain an understanding of Performing Arts Medicine from a musician’s point of view as well as a doctor’s. After taking this course I have returned to NZ to undergo further vocational training and developed a clinical practice in the field of Performing Arts Medicine. Thanks to the NZUK Link I am in a unique position to provide specialist medical advice to performing artists. I also want to help promote education and knowledge not just to help performers with difficulties but also to prevent injuries occurring in the first place.