Roy M. "Trip" Gulick, M.D., a professor of medicine and the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, took the stage at the opening session of the inaugural IDWeek conference to accept the HIV Medicine Association's annual HIV Clinical Educator Award. He then promptly showed the audience of several thousand exactly why he'd earned that distinction -- and in so doing, set a bar (several bars, actually, as well as an octave or two) for medical conference speeches that will be awfully hard to meet.

Following are the lyrics of the two-minute, a capella tour-de-force in which Gulick boldly stood at his podium and belted a (mostly on-key) parody of "Do-Re-Mi," the seminal song from the 1959 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music_._

Let's start at the very beginning. It's a very good place to start. When you read, you begin with: ABC.

When it's AIDS, you begin with: AZT.

AZT. The first AIDS drug just happened to be: AZT.

AZT-ddI-ddC.

As the 2012 HIVMA Clinical Educator Award [recipient], let's see if I can make it a little bit easier for you.

AZT was first, you see;

ddI was hockey pucks.

ddC: neuropathy;

d4T -- man, that stuff sucks!

3TC was worth a try;

saquinavir -- the first PI;

ritonavir -- too much GI.

Well, that's seven. Only 20 more!

Indinavir caused kidney stones;

nevirapine could slough your skin.

Nelfinavir gave you the runs;

delavirdine: [Gulick raises his arms, looks confused and mouths the word "what?"]

Efavirenz had raised the bar;

abacavir caused HSR;

amprenavir was not a star.

Well, that's 14. Only 13 more:

Lopinavir: lipids, we fear;

TDF: PRTD.

Enfuvirtide? Stuck in your side.

Atazanavir: bili!

FTC is still around;

fosamprenavir is losing ground;

tipranavir did not astound.

Well, that's 21; finally, six more drugs:

Darunavir: It works, we hear.

Raltegravir: not once a day.

Maraviroc: receptor block.

Etravirine seems OK.

Rilpivirine then got the nod;

elvitegravir -- don't call it quad!

They're not just combos, they're a squad.

And that brings us back to A (ZT).

Easy, right?

Download the audio file