The art of a more pleasant hospital stay
L-r, Genevieve Nelson, MA, Creative Director, Institute for Arts in Medicine; Caryn Lerman, PhD, Director, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Hugo Rosen, MD, Professor and Chairman, Dept. of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC; Jacek K. Pinski, MD, PhD, Assoc. Professor of Medicine, USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Mark Easton, lecturer, USC Gould School of Law; Rosa Easton, author; Paige Asawa, PhD, LMFT, ATR-BC, Program Director, Institute for Arts in Medicine. Photo
The USC Institute for Arts in Medicine launches on the Peninsula
Given a choice, most of us would rather be vacationing in Tahiti than undergoing a bone marrow biopsy or a lumbar puncture. While the first is optional, the second sometimes is not, but the mission of the newly established USC Institute for Arts in Medicine is to alleviate the anxieties and stress of hospitalized inpatients undergoing painful procedures, especially those where they’re required to remain conscious.
This past March, Rosa and Mark Easton hosted the launch for USC’s new program at their home in Rolling Hills Estates, an event that elaborated on the Institute for Arts in Medicine’s philosophy, services, and goals, and where guests were invited to meet and listen to doctors and professors Hugo Rosen and Jacek K. Pinski. It was a warm and sunny afternoon, after several days of incessant rain.
Therapeutic arts 101
Dr. Paige Asawa is the program director of the Institute for Arts in Medicine (IAM), located in Keck Medicine of USC at the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center. “It’s important to get all the titles correct,” she told me (see the above photo caption).
As for the IAM initiative, it’s to bring therapeutic arts into the hospital system for the benefit not only of patients, but also their families and the medical staff administering to their needs and concerns. Asawa explained: “The goal is to enhance patient experience across the board, so that they’ll be able to tap into their creativity to aid in their healing process. Whether they’re healing from cancer or another illness, their creativity is a source of wellness they can tap into through the use of the arts.”
One hesitates to describe the arts as a distraction, but in part the idea of introducing them into a hospital setting in order to calm and alleviate fears is a key aspect of distraction therapy. In short, dwelling on one’s illness or impending mortality isn’t a surefire road to a positive state of mind.
What sort of arts?
“The arts in the broadest sense,” Asawa replied, “meaning music and visual arts. If you can think of a type of art, we’ll be doing it: poetry, spoken word, everything.” Well, probably not ballet; that’s for later, after they smile, slap you on the back, and say, Okay, you’re good to go.
“Every single person connects to a different kind of art, right?” Asawa said, “and we want them to connect with their inner artist.” For some patients, maybe that would be only a CD player, headphones, and music by Arvo Pärt or Johann Sebastian Bach.
Jacek K. Pinski, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine, USC Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, USC. Photo
Dr. Jacek K. Pinski is a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine and the Genitourology Clinical Program Chair in the Division of Medical Oncology, a formidable title for most laypersons. Nonetheless, he’s the top dog, to use the vernacular, of a team of doctors, researchers, patient advocates and art therapists, all working to ensure that our hospital adventure is as pleasant as humanly possible.
“I’m not an artist myself,” he told those of us seated by the pool and cabana of the Eastons’ home, “although my childhood desire was one day to become a movie director.” This gets a few laughs but, who knows, maybe he could have given Krzysztof Kieślowski a run for his money. “It was unfortunately terminated by the convincing arguments of my parents who wanted me to be a doctor.”
Nonetheless, Pinski continued, he was raised with an appreciation for the visual and musical arts. “Listening to a great song or absorbing the beauty of an insightful painting filled me with joy and helped to relieve stress. In fact, my mother, when she was a young teenager in a Polish ghetto, organized weekly poetry sessions for her friends… in the bleakest of times.”
Dr. Pinski then expounded at great length what the IAM initiative is striving for, which is to bridge the divide between the arts, science, and medicine. “Addressing the psychological adversity caused by the disease and cancer therapy should be of equal importance.” He emphasized the need for a holistic approach that includes all aspects of the illness (physical, mental, spiritual) “instead of just ordering new diagnostic tests and prescribing medications.”
Among the artistic mediums that Pinski foresees as very useful for inpatient therapy is virtual reality, which would enable the patient “to escape the gloomy reality of the hospital room into the corridors of the Louvre Museum in Paris or a singing performance of Andrea Bocelli at the Hollywood Bowl.” Or, again, that vacation in Tahiti. There’s more on the virtues of virtual reality below.
The initial inspiration and ideas for IAM came from different sources, Pinski said, and after naming Dr. Asawa and others, he expressed his admiration for his colleague Dr. Hugo Rosen, who manages patients with acute and chronic liver disease at the Keck Medical Center of USC. “It was our first meeting with Dr. Rosen that transformed our idea from just a dream to practical reality. Dr. Rosen did not only immediately see and share our vision, but he was also the first one who provided his institutional and financial support for our program. Without his support we wouldn’t be standing here today.”
Research and funding go hand in hand, but first there are proposals and thus far the USC Norris’ Institutional Review Board has granted approval, pending completion of funding goals, for at least two studies, the first being “the effect of creative therapeutic interventions on anxiety, stress, and quality of life among adult cancer patients in the hospital setting,” and the second on “the effects of virtual reality on pain and anxiety in cancer patients undergoing painful procedures.”
The first includes the arts, generally speaking, as well as humor (think clowns) and meditation through guided imagery. The second focuses solely on virtual reality (VR), which brings us to Melody Kulp, CEO and founder of Virtually Strong.
Ceccily Bednash, MA, MFTI. She’s an art therapist and on the board of directors of Remainders Creative Reuse, which donated art materials for the launch event. Photo
“Virtual Reality,” Kulp said, “can basically take a patient into a whole other world, whether it would be an underwater experience or standing on top of Mount Everest or going skiing. It’s so immersive and 360 that it can transport somebody from where they are to another place.”
To prove that she’s not just whistling Dixie, Kulp placed a virtual reality headset over my head and suddenly I was 50 feet underwater, standing on a shipwreck, with fish swimming everywhere I looked. “You’re going to see a whale,” she said, alerting me, and sure enough one slowly emerged from the distance. A lesser man would have bolted for the surface, but… In short, the experience is completely immersive, and that of course is the point.
“We’re looking to do four different studies at USC Norris Cancer Center,” Kulp added. Essentially, their endgame is to divert patient anxiety. As a fact sheet succinctly points out: “The utility of VR as a companion to invasive procedures will be evaluated in terms of its psychological and biological impacts, through patient reported pain scores, anxiety surveys, and through assessment of serum biomarkers correlated with pain and anxiety.” If the results prove favorable, “This will be the first dedicated VR program for patients in the U.S.”
All of this was further explained by Kulp herself, and one senses that as a therapeutic asset VR’s use will not only lower stress but, between painful procedures, go a long way towards easing patient isolation and boredom while waiting to recover. And if one doesn’t recover, well, at least we can visit Tahiti or walk through the Louvre one last time.
The perfect setting
The afternoon in Rolling Hills Estates would not have been possible without the generosity of Rosa Easton, an attorney who took an 18-year detour to raise a family, and her husband, Mark, a lecturer at the USC Gould School of Law.
Rosa Easton’s involvement with the IAM launch and allowing her home to be the site of it, can be traced to her friendship with art therapist Paige Asawa, whom I’d spoken with earlier. Their sons were in kindergarten together and later, when Easton’s high school-aged daughter was interested in art, she arranged for the girl to meet Asawa, who then “became kind of a mentor for my daughter. So, when I found out that Paige was interested in launching this institute, I asked how I could help, and I discussed the idea of having an event where we could inform and make people aware of the wonderful work the arts would provide in a medical setting.
“So we came up with this idea to do a fundraiser,” Easton continued, “to allow people to understand what this new institute is all about. I think it’s a wonderful program, the wave of the future in terms of how all art could help with making a person’s experience going through a medical procedure more bearable.
“I see the healing process as not only physical but also psychological, and the art addresses the psychological part. With the USC support I think it’s going to go far.” ER