We’re going to take a slightly different path from usual this week. Rather than our usual exploration of the benefits of music, or tips and tricks for practicing and keeping your instrument safe, we’re going to discuss a recent Canadian-led study that looks into the effectiveness of medical alarms. Right now you may be asking yourself, “What does this have to do with music?” The answer is: more than you may expect!
Musical Medical Alarms
A recent study conducted in Hamilton, Ontario, and published in the British Journal of Anesthesia, looked into the effectiveness of medical alarms. The findings revealed that musical notes are significantly “less bothersome” than the current industry-standard flat tones. What’s more, researchers believe these more musical tones could be more effective at alerting health-care workers while maintaining patient safety.
“They drive me nuts.”
According to health-care workers that spoke with CTVNews.ca, a change in the alarm tone could offer a bit of hope for them, as they start to feel alarm fatigue from the current flat-one. “They drive me nuts,” says Heather McKenzie, who works as a registered practical nurse in a kidney dialysis ward in Welland, Ont. “I know I have to respond but if I’m in the middle of something important, it has to wait, causing a feeling of pressure, like a knot in my stomach or even nausea.”
One of the study’s co-authors, Joseph Schlesinger, an anesthesiologist and critical care physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, said he was exposed to the common, flat-alarms on a daily basis. It got so bad for him that he started to hear the alarms as he tried to sleep at night.
The alarms are built into IV units, heart monitors, and drug pumps, among a litany of other devices that alert staff to any changes in a patient’s status. And while these alarms may start off as simply an annoyance, they can become much more than that. In fact, according to the American FDA, issues with hospital alarms contributed to 566 patient deaths between January 2005 and June 2010.
The Study
Lead author on the study and professor of music cognition, Michael Shutz, says that efforts to cut down on hospital noise pollution have been centered on reducing alarms instead of altering them. The study’s work aims to change that.
To that end, researchers changed the tones in medical devices in an attempt to find a note that was more effective at alerting users. The tones selected were designed to resemble musical notes, described as a pair of wine glasses clinking together, with the sound fading over time. Then, in a follow up experiment, researchers asked health-care workers to rate how annoying they found each of the tested tones.
Results
The experiments found that each of the experimental sounds were equally informative as the original flat-tones, but workers found them far less grating. In fact, when asked which tone she would prefer, Heather McKenzie told CTVNews, ca, “I like the musical sounding beeps better,” adding that the musical alarms would mean “less stress.”
According to Michael Shutz, “These new sounds are actually more alerting, they grab your attention better… But they don’t distract from your ability to understand speech. We want doctors and nurses to be able to communicate.””
What’s more, the study shows “the alarm can be softer than what we have now, and doesn’t harm the perception of the alarm itself,” Schlesinger added.
Furthermore, as UK scientist Judy Reed Edworthy told CTVNews, this study provides more evidence that it’s time for device manufacturers and regulators to start paying attention. “The work in this paper can help medical device companies to improve their alarms and improve patient safety as well as clinician fatigue, ” said Reed, who is a professor of applied psychology (emerita) at the University of Plymouth. She has also worked with the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Noise.
Also required, according to researchers, is a shift away from treating all alarms as “emergencies,” and instead differentiating urgency from basic patient information. “I think if we just called them auditory alerts, the whole challenge would become a lot clearer,” says Schutz. “If you have an alert on your phone… that conveys information without pulling you out of whatever else it is that you’re doing,”
–
Looking to start your own musical journey? The Music Studio has programs for all ages and skill levels, including programs for small children and seniors! Check out everything we have to offer!