Health IT, Startups

Can music ease pain? PureTech launches project to find out

A group of scientists want to explore the therapeutic potential of music, particularly for pain […]

A group of scientists want to explore the therapeutic potential of music, particularly for pain and fatigue, and they have set up a project to attract global collaboration. PureTech CEO Daphne Zohar is leading the initiative, according to a statement.

The Sync Project maps music characteristics to biometrics and objective measurements of physiology seeks to study the therapeutic effect of music in large populations, according to a statement from PureTech. The goal is to help medical and health research scientists, technologists and clinicians conduct studies and accelerate discovery of clinical applications of music.

Although lots of research points to positive effects of music for pain and fatigue, PureTech wanted to do a better job of validating the data in different patient populations, according to the statement. There is potential for other conditions t0 benefit from music therapy as well.

Music therapy has been applied to a range of coditions, incuding patients with Alzheimer’s disease and other degenerative nerological conditions. GE Healthcare developed an iPad app last year to stimulate and engage with people with Alzheimer’s. In addition to music there are also activities across art in the app, MIND. On the music side,  patients are encouraged to play their favorite songs, sing along to them and create dance steps. Patients can also create their own music, watch music videos and listen to music from different countries.

Tristan Jehan, Founding CTO of The Echo Nest and an adviser to The Sync Project, said: “It gives us the potential to combine advancements in the understanding of musical attributes with the explosion of health data from devices…The ability to use machine learning to actually pinpoint the therapeutic effect of music and potentially have an impact on millions of people is tremendously exciting.”

 

 

 

 

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