There's music in it
The content on this page was translated automatically.
A new center for the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
In cooperation with the Hamburg University of Music and Drama (HfMT), the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) was the first university hospital in Germany to establish a Center for Music Medicine and Music Therapy (CMM) this autumn. Traditionally, C-Centers at the UKE deal with so-called cross-sectional topics in which several disciplines are involved; in this case, it is about the connections between music and medicine. Music medicine and music therapy are already used in numerous medical specialties based on evidence: at the UKE in the clinics for psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, oncology, palliative medicine and neurology.
What does the new center offer?
The center is now bundling the expansion and further development of previous activities relating to the use of music in a medical context. New interdisciplinary research projects are consolidating music medicine and music therapy at the UKE. This also includes the ongoing studies on the acoustic environment in hospitals, waiting rooms and operating theaters ("healing soundscapes") at the UKE Heart Center, which are unique in Germany, as well as the area of musician medicine, which has so far been little established in Hamburg and focuses on the health competence of professional musicians. The existing consultation hours for music students and professional musicians in general medicine at the UKE and the prevention seminars at the HfMT Hamburg will be expanded to include targeted research into playing technique, which is intended to support (prospective) professional musicians in mastering the demanding movement sequences involved in playing instruments efficiently and in a health-based manner. "These three subject areas of music medicine/music therapy, musicians' medicine and healing soundscapes will initially form the pillars of the new Centre for Music Medicine and Music Therapy at the UKE," explains Prof. Dr. Eike Sebastian Debus, initiator and founder of the innovative centre at the UKE: "We already have a long tradition of music and medicine at the UKE with the successful format Mensch, Musik, Medizin (MMM). This enriches our work and shows us time and again that artistic activities can make an essential contribution to recovery. With the new centre, we will be able to set an example for the whole of Germany, especially with regard to the integration of music and music therapy in the medical field."
This statement echoes recent recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO). It has evaluated around 900 studies worldwide on the subject of health and creativity. The result certainly confirms the assumption of many people: Creative and inventive activities such as singing, making music, dancing or even visual and intellectual design improve well-being and health.
The evidence-based use of music in a medical setting not only represents a therapeutic treatment, but also brings the arts back into a highly technical environment. In addition to professional knowledge, methodological or operational skills and evidence, we need essential qualities such as creativity, intuition, emotionality, compassion, interpersonal attention and engagement, aesthetics and spirituality to maintain medical treatment as a healing art in the true sense of the word. Music brings humanity and dignity back into hospital operations, as it fulfills the aforementioned core human needs.
Prehistory
The founding of the Center was preceded by decades of collaboration between the Institute for Music Therapy at the HfMT Hamburg and the UKE in research, teaching and clinical practice. The UKE has been a teaching hospital for music therapy students at the HfMT Hamburg since 2011. As part of the cooperation with the UKE's Dean's Office of Teaching, the UKE's Music Therapy department leads internships and implements courses in the professional field exploration of the HfMT Hamburg's Master's program. HfMT Hamburg and UKE can also look back on a whole series of scientific conferences that have been held jointly in the past.
Members
Several UKE clinics participate in the CMM, in particular the Clinic and Polyclinic for Vascular Medicine under the direction of Prof. Dr. Eike Sebastian Debus, the Institute and Polyclinic for Medical Psychology with Prof. Dr. Dr. Martin Härter and the Institute and Polyclinic for General Medicine with Prof. Dr. Scherer. The Center for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine with Prof. Dr. Christian Zöllner is also interested in collaborating and other clinics have the option of participating. On the part of the HfMT Hamburg, the Institute for Music Therapy under the direction of Prof. Karin Holzwarth and Prof. Dr. Dorothee von Moreau is a founding partner. The Multimedia Composition Department of the HfMT Hamburg under the direction of Prof. Dr. Georg Hajdu is an important player in the "healing soundscapes" research project. Last but not least, the music therapy specialist group at the UKE is a key member of the CMM as a whole. Their tireless networking work across the boundaries of the various UKE clinics involved is the nucleus and heart of the preparations for the establishment of this extraordinary center.
Founding event
The first Science & Sounds Conference in September 2022 at the UKE together with the HfMT Hamburg and the International Society for Music and Medicine (ISMM) provided a prelude and ceremonial framework for the founding of the Center. Guest lecturers and participants from the USA, Finland, Israel, Germany, Switzerland and Austria provided decisive impetus for the establishment of the center and a high-caliber international professional connection in expert panels, among other things. "We know that music has been used successfully in medicine internationally for many years," confirms Prof. Dr. Dorothee von Moreau from the Institute for Music Therapy at the HfMT Hamburg: "There is a wealth of clinical and scientific evidence. We now want to strengthen and deepen our own research in Hamburg with the new center at the UKE." The successful kick-off conference consisting of a symposium, expert panels and a public day is to be continued in the coming years, alternating with the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw), in order to intensify the development of music in medicine in neighboring countries using the example of the UKE Center in Hamburg.