Music as Medicine: Conservatory Researchers Look to Improve Health Outcomes
Amy Robertson, Ph.D., works with premature babies; Paul Rudy, DMA, examines the sound environment in operating rooms
BY KAITLIN WEST
Amy Robertson, Ph.D., works with premature infants and their mothers. PHOTO / BRANDON PARIGO
People have long turned to music to help them through hard times. We’re still learning about how beneficial it can be to health and wellness, and two Conservatory professors are on the cutting edge of that research. Amy Robertson, Ph.D., and Paul Rudy, DMA, bring their passion for music to an unlikely place: hospitals. Robertson and Rudy are both conducting research to see how music and sound impacts health outcomes.
Lullabies to Help Infants Thrive
Amy Robertson, Ph.D., can still remember the first time she held a premature infant as part of her work as a music therapist.
“She was 32 weeks, really tiny,” Robertson said. “We started the music therapy intervention and all of a sudden, she gave a huge smile, and I just fell in love. I was amazed at the effect music can have on these infants that are so young. Something so simple can be so powerful.”
Robertson, a music therapist and professor at the UMKC Conservatory, is conducting research on the benefits of music therapy for extremely pre-term infants, who are born at 25-28 weeks. Her research is expanding on existing knowledge that music therapy benefits infants born at 28 weeks or later; benefits include supporting development, stabilizing vitals, transitioning to feeding easier and gaining weight faster. On average, infants who receive music therapy leave the NICU 12 days sooner than those who don’t.
Many of the infants Robertson works with are on ventilators and subject to invasive medical procedures. The stimulation and stress of being in the NICU can be detrimental to their health and development at these earliest stages of life.
“The procedures have to happen, the machines are necessary, but at the same time it’s really hard for these infants to develop neurologically the way they would in the womb,” Robertson said. “So now they’re having to navigate this stressful environment while undergoing treatments with an immature neurologic system.”
Various evidence-based music therapy interventions are used appropriately for infants based on their age and auditory processing abilities. For extremely pre-term infants, Robertson sings simple, slow lullabies for no more than 20 minutes following a specific guideline for tempo, volume and melodic structure.
Early research shows that live lullaby singing may help extremely pre-term infants stabilize their vitals and come off the ventilator faster. It also shows promising potential to reduce the risk of brain bleeds and the amount of pain medication needed during their stay in the NICU.
Amy Robertson, Ph.D., works with premature infants and their mothers. PHOTO / BRANDON PARIGO
Sound in the Operating Room
“I never imagined I would be using my composer and sound research skills in a hospital,” Paul Rudy, DMA, said. “But that’s what I love about this collaboration and this research. He realized he needs an artist, someone who thinks differently.”
The “he” is Gary Sutkin, M.D., associate dean and professor in the UMKC School of Medicine. Sutkin and Rudy have teamed up to conduct research on the impact sound has in operating rooms with a $1.9 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. Although the setting is new to him, the topic is one that Rudy is very familiar with.
“I want everyone to be aware of the sound environment,” Rudy said. “We live in a really noisy world where sound is always a cognitive drain. So how do we function best in it, and how do we take care in what we contribute to the sound environment as individuals?”
Rudy observes and records surgeries to better understand the operating room sound environment and where changes could be made. He wonders if the care taken in orchestra performances and rehearsals to minimize unwanted sound outside of music could inform better sound practice in the operating room.
“Everyone has to work harder when there’s more noise happening and you have to hear and be heard over it,” Rudy said. “If we can identify ways to make operating rooms quieter, everybody’s performance improves and it’s safer for the patient.”
Some of Rudy’s possible goals for the study include creating protocols around sound awareness during surgeries and tuning hospital equipment by manufacturers. Right now, he’s appreciative of the opportunity to collaborate and provide an artist’s perspective to the medical community.
“Music is beneficial, it’s healing. People are realizing more and more the place that music has as medicine. There are so many possibilities for intersection that can make the world a better place.”
—Paul Rudy, DMA, Conservatory professor