Comments on Pallimed: Case Conferences: Using Cultural-Specific Music to Alleviate Symptom...

thanks for the comment Cynthia. I completely agre...

2009-04-11T13:00:00.000-05:00

thanks for the comment Cynthia. I completely agree with you about the focus needed on the Arts & Humanities. I heard a lecture by Robert Potter who was a key force in the Bioethics movement in the 90's. He noted that the technological fascinations of medicine can be traced back to a reading of the Flexner Report. The Flexner Report was comissioned by the AMA in the early 1900's to unify and standardize all medical education. There is a vital statement about the need to have science as the basis for medicine which apparently was often quoted but the second part of the statement is that medicine is not science alone but the balance with the humanities.

If you have not seen the Arts & Humanities section of Pallimed, i would encourage you to click on the Arts button at the top of the Pallimed pages or go to arts.pallimed.org It is a weekly blog and was created expressly for the reason you wrote about.

As far as incorporating more culture into the cases series, I am using material from the University of Pittsburgh for the cases blog so I don't get any input into topics. But I guess I am the editor of the Cases blog so I could do whatever I wanted and publish my own!

This is a very innovative case and use of music th...

2009-04-11T05:11:00.000-05:00

This is a very innovative case and use of music therapy. We often forget about the humanities and arts in the setting of a life threatening illness, thus forgetting that the patient is actually a person. We also don't touch upon "culture" much. Would love to see more cultural issues in cases. Thank you.

I actually quoted this case in a lecture today on ...

2009-01-15T14:34:00.000-06:00

I actually quoted this case in a lecture today on COPD and treatment of dyspnea. I am continually impressed what a energetic music therapist can add to a therapeutic regimen.

Thanks for the comment.

This is such an uplifting and wonderful case study...

2009-01-12T17:46:00.000-06:00

This is such an uplifting and wonderful case study to read. I love that the singing even helped her exercise her lungs. Thank you for the post.