Comprehensive Support: A Look Into Mount Sinai’s Music Therapy Program

Mount Sinai Medical Center’s Comprehensive Cancer Center features a host of support services for both patients and their families. Among them is our Music Therapy Program, established in 2020, which is headed by Maria Hernandez, MD, MT-BC, and supervised by Joy Oronos, RN, OCN, MSN, NE, and Assistant Vice President of Nursing and Support Services. Music therapy is designed to assist patients with symptom management, including anxiety, depression, and pain, as well as provide a personalized outlet for expression and creativity.

For our patients receiving treatment, music therapy provides parasympathetic system relief. Participants can be active or passive, and patients with all levels of experience, or no experience at all, are encouraged to take part. In fact, both our staff and patients’ friends and family benefit from the music therapy integrations; Dr. Hernandez believes that proximity to the treatment provides stress relief.

Mount Sinai’s program is at the forefront of crucial research in this field. In 2022, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) approved our center to conduct a research study with Juan Paramo, MD, FACS, FICS, FSSO, DABS, and Dr. Hernandez serving as co-principal investigators. The aim of this prospective observational study was to evaluate the effects of music therapy on patients actively undergoing chemotherapy; a total of 61 participants were enrolled, with 50 participants completing all three sessions.

During this study, each participant received three 20-minute personalized music therapy sessions. Patients’ vital signs were recorded before and after each session. Additionally, participants completed two surveys: the Edmonton Assessment Symptom System before and after each session to assess their physical and psychological well-being, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, which was completed before the first session and after the final session.

Participating patients were given a survey and invited to share their feedback on their music therapy experience and the study. According to Dr. Hernandez and Dr. Paramo, preliminary analysis shows that music therapy provides a significant benefit to cancer patients.

In addition to clinical research, our music therapy program offers a unique opportunity: legacy projects. These collaborative music videos involve patient songwriting and Dr. Hernandez’s composition and instruments; they are designed to promote self-expression and help the patients process their cancer journey. These projects offer patients and their families a lasting, cohesive documentation of each patient’s time at Mount Sinai.

At Mount Sinai, we’re always aiming to improve our standard of personalized, compassionate care. Through our music therapy program, we engage patients, their loved ones, and our staff in a healing process and provide a reprieve in their journeys.