RESONATE – Music Bond in Neonatal Care and Beyond
To enhance and evaluate an interactive, safe and easy-to-use health app with music for parents of premature babies and neonatology staff. The app enables parents to use music to promote health in a personalized way and strengthen their parenting skills.
Background
Research results show that creative music therapy can promote impaired neurological development of premature infants while improving bonding and parental well-being. However, general access to Creative Music Therapy is still limited in neonatal care
Study
Together with the UK company vCreate, we aim to enhance their interactive, safe and easy-to-use health app for parents of premature babies and staff of neonatal intensive care units. Including newly developed material (songs, tutorials, health information), which will enable parents from different cultures and languages to use music to improve their individual and child’s health as well as to strengthen their parenting skills. After exploring user needs related to music, prototype material for the health app will be developed together with parents, healthcare staff, the amiamusica association and our industry partner vCreate, in whose mHealth product we aim to implement the newly developed elements. We will then research the usability, acceptance and implementation in neonatal care and at home. We also want to assess parents' self-efficacy, well-being, bonding with their child and digital health literacy.
Objectives
In cooperation with the University of Zurich, the University Hospital Zurich, the amiamusica association and the UK company vCreate, the Careum School of Health aims at developing, piloting and evaluating interactive music elements in an existing health app for parents and healthcare professionals.
Methods
First, we will evaluate user needs. We will then discuss the feasibility of the needs and define the technical requirements of the app in close collaboration with the parents and our industry partner vCreate, in whose mHealth product we will implement our empowering elements. We will then assess usability and acceptance in the hospital and home environment, followed by a three-month review of our jointly designed prototype elements in usability, implementation, parental self-efficacy, well-being and retention.
Our international collaboration enables optimal resources utilisation by combining a unique technological base with clinical and research experience to co-design the mHealth music application while ensuring international market entry through established neonatology networks. Particular attention is paid to including parents of premature babies as stakeholders.
Team
PI: Dr. Friederike Haslbeck (Universitätsspital Zürich, Universität Zürich)
Co-applicants: Dr. Rosa Visscher, Dr. Prof. Dr. Jörg Haslbeck (Careum Hochschule Gesundheit)
Team: Dr. Bettina Schwind (Careum Hochschule Gesundheit)
Partners: vCreate, amiamusica
Funding
Ernst Göhner Stiftung 2023-2663/1.1, Eduard Aeberhardt Stiftung
Duration
March 2024 – December 2026
Literature
Haslbeck FB, Mueller K, Karen T, Loewy J, Meerpohl JJ, Bassler D. Musical and vocal interventions to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes for preterm infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2023, Issue 9. Art. No.: CD013472. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD0134
Haslbeck FB, Jakab A, Held U, Bassler D, Bucher HU, Hagmann C. Creative music therapy to promote brain function and brain structure in preterm infants: A randomized controlled pilot study. Neuroimage Clin. 2020;25:102171. Doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2020.102171.