The Music Study

For the first time ever, in 2005 a piano was placed in an operating room and the surgeon played the piano for his patients prior to performing their surgeries. It was a novel idea but one with healthy and amazingly soothing consequences.

Dr. Jorge Camara used to separate his life pursuits– being a physician, musician, humanitarian, educator, researcher -- into compartments. “Then I realized it was all part of one whole,” he says. “Music and medicine, for instance, were two forms of the same thing, so why not bring them together?” Knowing that music soothes, and also realizing the night-and-day difference between listening to a live performance compared to a music CD, he wanted to bring live music to his patients.

In “The Effects of Live Classical Piano Music on the Vital Signs of Patients Undergoing Ophthalmic Surgery,” a study Dr. Camara authored with Joseph Ruszkowski, Ph.D. and Sandra Worak, M.D., he played piano for 115 patients in the operating room just prior to performing their eye surgeries at the former St. Francis Hospital Medical Center East (now renamed Hawaii Medical Center East).

In the study, patients had their vital signs measured before entering the operating room, and again after listening to ten minutes of Dr. Camara’s playing, before receiving any sedatives. These patients experienced a statistically significant decrease in blood pressure (21%), heart rate (8.3%) and breathing rate (20.7%). By contrast, a control group of 88 patients experienced a significant elevation in blood pressure (5.4%), heart rate (8.3%) and breathing rate (23.3%) as they entered the operating room. Listening to soothing music provided tangible benefits to Dr. Camara’s patients. And it may do the same for you!