From Rock to Doc: The Neil Ratner Story

<p>Neil Ratner, MD, has played remarkably divergent roles in his life, initially as a rock-and-roll drummer and staging entrepreneur, working with the likes of Edgar Winter and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. But he always had an interest in medicine, so eventually he ditched his successful rock career and went to medical school, later becoming an anesthesiologist who embraced the then-novel concept of delivering non-OR anesthesia, which he helped pioneer.  </p><p>It was through his work as an anesthesiologist for a plastic surgeon that he ended up meeting Michael Jackson, of all people, who immediately liked Dr. Ratner and his rock-and-roll roots.  </p><p>His rock music and medicine careers enjoyed some precipitous highs but also significant lows, all of which he candidly details in his book “Rock Doc.”</p><p>Perhaps surprisingly, however, our interview with Dr. Ratner is mostly not about his rock-and-roll past or his work doing non-OR anesthesiology, but instead about what he is up to today: serving as a kind of public health announcer for a radio station in, fittingly, Woodstock, N.Y. His work interpreting medical news—particularly as it relates to COVID-19—for the station (WDST; 100.1 MHz) has made a difference in the public’s understanding of the complicated issues brought about by the pandemic.</p><p> </p>