{"id":16931,"date":"2023-02-06T12:47:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-06T17:47:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=16931"},"modified":"2023-02-06T12:47:44","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T17:47:44","slug":"celebrating-the-connection-between-the-arts-and-healing-at-dartmouth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2023\/celebrating-the-connection-between-the-arts-and-healing-at-dartmouth\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the Connection Between the Arts and Healing at Dartmouth"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Serving as an excellent example of the important role that the arts and humanities play in healing and health, Dartmouth Health hosted its fourth Annual Arts and Humanities in Medicine Symposium on January 27. Following the symposium, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice hosted an art exhibition and reception at DH, serving as a fitting end to the day\u2019s interactive presentations.<\/p>\n

The symposium featured talks from researchers and practitioners from Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health (DH), and Dartmouth College as well as the University of Rochester\u2014sharing the impact that music, art, and the humanities are having on patient care through a number of innovative projects. (See highlights from three of the symposium talks, as well as TDI\u2019s art exhibition, below. A video of the full symposium will be available soon here<\/a>)<\/u><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very pleased with the turnout which included almost 100 people per session,\u201d said Marianne Barthel, director of the Arts and Humanities Program at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC). \u201cWe strive to hit a broad number of subjects because our field is so broad\u2014including research, patient care, and interaction with our community and our students. For the size of our institutions and our staffing in those areas, I think we do incredible work, and we are a leader in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healing Arts Engage Patients<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bans on family visitation during the COVID-19 pandemic created significant challenges for postoperative engagement and orientation in older adults. To address this gap, trauma and acute care surgeon Alexandra Briggs, MD, an assistant professor of surgery at Geisel and co-director of the geriatric surgery program at DH, worked with colleagues to explore whether a proactive partnership with DH\u2019s Creative Arts program would facilitate geriatric patient engagement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that older adults are at higher risk for poor outcomes after surgery, with delirium\u2014an acute state of confusion\u2014being a particularly difficult and costly complication,\u201d she explained. Among other interventions, engaging patients through virtual concerts, therapeutic harpist visits, art, and writing activities can help with orientation and prevent delirium.<\/p>\n

To date, their targeted creative arts program has yielded more than 200 completed visits and has resulted in positive feedback from staff and patients. \u201cIt\u2019s feasible and incredibly useful. We\u2019ve demonstrated that here and we need to do more,\u201d said Briggs.<\/p>\n

Keynote: Music and Epilepsy<\/strong><\/p>\n

Research involving people with drug-resistant epilepsy has shown that listening to some music, particularly Mozart\u2019s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (also known as KV 448) may decrease the probability of clinical seizures and their related comorbidities. Understanding the results required collaboration between experts in neurology and music theory.<\/p>\n

When Barbara Jobst, MD, chair of the Department of Neurology and Neurocritical Care at DH and a professor of neurology at Geisel, first heard about the \u201cKV448 effect,\u201d she was skeptical. \u201cI thought, \u2018this can\u2019t be true,\u2019 but if you doubt something as a physician you better go and study it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After conducting extensive research with Michael Casey, PhD, a professor of music and computer science at Dartmouth, and many others, Jobst and her colleagues found that the Mozart piece does in fact reduce epileptiform activity and may possibly have an effect on memory.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur big hope as physicians and musicians is to one day engineer some music that is anti-epileptic and can possibly do something for memory,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have Mozart, but to listen to Mozart all day to the same sonata is quite tiresome. We have to come up with better ways to find more music that has the same effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Positive Exposure Fights Stigma<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the symposium\u2019s final presentation, Eleonore Baughan, a second-year medical student at Geisel, and Kathy Kirkland, MD, a professor of medicine and of health policy and clinical practice at Geisel and section chief and director of palliative medicine at DH, talked about their photography project\u00a0\u00a0 working with Positive Exposure.<\/p>\n

Positive Exposure is a nonprofit organization that uses photography to empower and humanize people with physical differences. \u201cLast spring, we brought a Positive Exposure exhibition to DHMC featuring 30 portraits for about eight weeks,\u201d said Baughan, noting that their mission was to help fight stigma and create a more inclusive community.<\/p>\n

Kirkland explained that the exhibition was paired with a narrative medicine experience in which participants responded to writing prompts in a facilitated group or a self-guided option\u2014with the prompts inviting them to imagine the specifics of what life might be like for the people featured in the portraits. She repeated this exercise with symposium participants after sharing some of the photos.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the value of the project, Kirkland said, \u201cI think it was Anais Nin who said, \u2018We don\u2019t see things as they are, we see them as we are.\u2019 To me, the real opportunity when looking at these portraits was being able to see somebody else\u2019s perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human Connection through Art<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following the Arts & Humanities in Medicine Symposium, The Dartmouth Institute held an art exhibition and reception in its Williamson 5th<\/sup>-floor space at DHMC, featuring the work of 10 affiliated artists.<\/p>\n

The event was the brainchild of Eleni Fanouraki, MPH \u201922, who works as a research assistant for Amber Barnato, MD, MPH, MS, the John E. Wennberg Distinguished Professor in Health Policy and Clinical Practice and director of The Dartmouth Institute. Fanouraki designed the exhibit as an interactive model of presentation, inviting visitors to view a variety of artwork\u2014from photography to paintings to paper mache.<\/p>\n

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\u201cCommunity engagement is a big part of decision making in public health,\u201d Fanouraki said. \u201cThis event was designed to facilitate unstructured connections among students, staff, and faculty to enhance our sense of community across disciplines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a great idea,\u201d said Craig Westling, DrPH, MPH, MS, executive director of education at The Dartmouth Institute, who was one of many faculty members and students who turned out for the event. \u201cThe last three years we\u2019ve all been separated so much. Not only is this a way to gather but it\u2019s a way to gather in a very personal way. I am grateful to the artists for sharing their work and expressing themselves in ways that you don\u2019t typically see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting about the inspiration for a water-color painting called \u201cHealth is Holistic,\u201d Roland Lamb, MPH, residential MPH\/MS program manager at The Dartmouth Institute, said, \u201cIt was a team endeavor with my wife Daniela. The painting emphasizes the importance of mental health globally and the interconnectedness of nature and human experience. It also has to do with caring for people from all diverse backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaitlyn Mi, a graduate student at The Dartmouth Institute, shared her motivation to produce digital artwork of a human hand pressed on canvas. \u201cI thought it would be a fun way to express myself and to expand upon some skills that I learned taking biomechanics and medical illustration classes in college,\u201d she explained. \u201cI took a very literal, medical route to show different parts of the hand, but I think it\u2019s really interesting to see how people can express their thoughts about medicine and public health in so many different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m grateful to the artists that participated with their works and for understanding this need to \u2018share\u2019,\u201d said Fanouraki. \u201cHopefully, we can make it an annual event.\u201d<\/p>\n

The exhibition will be open to the public until Feb 12th<\/sup>\u00a0during business hours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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