Meet Ron Friedman: Board-cerified plastic surgeon, songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ron Friedman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ron, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Work life balance is an illusion. Every successful medical practice is anchored by doctors and nurses who are fully dedicated to their patients and their craft. Early on in our practice, my wife and I had to modify our personal lives to accomodate our plastic surgery practice. After the birth of our son (now age 23), my wife breastfed him in her office between patient appointments. When our kids were 4 and 5, we had “movie nights” at our office in which they would watch cartoons while reclining in a recovery room stretcher, giving my wife and I a chance to catch up on work. Now that our kids have left home and we have been practicing for 25 years, work life balance is finally becoming a reality. While we still work about 60 hours per week, my wife does yoga three times per week, we ride bicycles about 50 miles per week, and I play keyboards for two bands and write and produce music regularly.

Can you open up a bit about your musical interests? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have been playing piano since third grade and writing music since fifth grade. I hung out in a recording studio and created an 8 track tape of my songs during my teen years. Unsurprisingly, it was not exactly a commercial success. Recognizing that there are many starving artists but very few starving plastic surgeons, I put my musical aspirations on hold and went to medical school. After 25 years of practice (and with both kids out of the house), I am turning my attention back to writing music. My current project is a full length musical about the untold true story of silicone gel breast implants. “Cleavage: the front story” is the perfect synthesis of my interests in music, comedy, and plastic surgery. I feel uniquely positioned to understand and convey the entire timeline of silicone gel implants from development in 1962 to their ban in 1992 (when I was training in plastic surgery) and their reintroduction in 2006. I have already met with a Hollywood producer and am very excited to continue recording the entire musical score, which I work on daily. Everyone seems to be fascinated by breast implants, and I have irrational confidence that this musical will be successful.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Jin, my wife of 27 years, is the inspiration behind everything I do. As you can imagine, I have written several songs about her, including one that I sang at our wedding. The first verse: We met at Parkland in the ICU. We shared some gunshot wounds and GI bleeds too. I thought you were cute, but I didn’t think you knew. So I got up my nerve and my cash reservesand bought a McDonald’s ice cream for you. The rest is history of love in the making. A Big Mac and fries and you were mine for the taking. But the best things in life come unexpectedly. And so it was for you and me.

We have worked side by side as doctor and nurse since 1991. We are partners in raising two children, bicycling, hiking, traveling to most of the national parks, and hanging out eating and watching movies. Jin is singlehandedly responsible for much of my personal and professional success, and I feel very fortunate to have her at my side.

Website: http://www.plasticsurgerydallas.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronald-m-friedman-md-73348918
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Plastic-Surgeon/Ronald-M-Friedman-MD-PA-485626425577/
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ronald-m-friedman-md-pa-plano
Other: https://www.plasticsurgerydallas.com/artistic-approach/

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