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T he hospital's decade-old program be- gan with Louisville artist Joanie Ler- man's desire to honor her late hus- band, music-loving Audubon pathologist Dr. Robert Lerman, who died in 2000 of liver cancer, by making sure that musical support was available to Norton patients. Te physician, who was a great believer in the healing power of music, had listened to classical recordings in his office, played the piano for an hour every day and rou- tinely sang his pathology reports into his Dictaphone. His family donated $25,000, matched by the Norton Foundation, to create an Audubon music library. Since then, the program has evolved into a na- tional model, with nearly 3,000 CDs and an array of musical instruments, includ- ing six guitars, conga drums, a digital key- board, rainsticks, dulcimers, folk harps and a hand-held ocean drum that replicates the sound of waves when shaken. Hiring Branson, the hospital's full-time music therapist for the past seven years, was a key leap forward in that evolution. "It was serendipity," says Joanie Lerman. Te 2004 University of Louisville gradu- ate uses her voice and instrumental skills to help patients relax before surgery, become more mobile during rehabilitative therapies and find comfort from pain. Many of her patients, like Galloway, suffer from chronic conditions related to intestinal problems, diabetes or pulmonary diseases. Some have terminal illnesses. Currently, there are about 300 certified music therapists working in U.S. hospitals, 46 of them in Kentucky. Medical research has shown that music reduces stress hor- mones and elevates hormones that impart a sense of well-being. In Cleveland, studies involving burn patients at the city's Metro- Health Medical Center concluded that pain levels decreased when patients participated in music therapy during dressing changes. Te results were based on the measurement of stress hormones, respiration and heart rates, and patients' assessment of their level of pain, according to a report last year in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. As mothers of infants know, lullabies help soothe a colicky baby. By giving the brain something it likes to hear, stress is reduced. Tat, in turn, helps medications work more efficiently and promote healing, according to Branson. "If we can reduce patients' anxiety," she says, "their immune systems will work better." Te Henderson, Ky., native latched on to music early, and like her father, a bass drummer in a local bagpipe band, she grav- itated to percussion instruments. In high school she played snare drum and glock- enspiel, traveling regularly to Owensboro to play with the city's Youth Orchestra. At Western Kentucky University, she earned a double-major degree in music and English. She taught music for several years before completing her U of L music-therapy de- gree and going to work at Audubon. While other hospitals offer some mea- sure of music therapy, which was first ad- opted in veterans hospitals to ease shell shock and wound pain after the two World Wars, Norton Healthcare is the only hos- pital system in the region with full-time certified music therapists (two) treating in- hospital patients. All five Norton hospitals employ music therapists, including Kosair Children's Hospital. Audubon, with Bran- son and four part-time music therapists, employs five of the Norton system's eight and is the training ground for U of L's mu- sic-therapy students. "Tis hospital wants to create a serene and peaceful environment," says Audubon president Steven MacLauchlan. "Anything we can do to help that, we want to do." Ultimately, Branson envisions Audu- bon's multi-pronged program, which in- cluded 1,366 therapy sessions in 2011, as a resource for hospitals nationwide. Al- ready that vision is taking shape. New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center has expressed interest in learning more about the program, and Branson was an invited speaker in January at the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York. Her topic: "New Frontiers in Pain Manage- ment." Says Dr. Joanne Loewy, the Armstrong Center's director, "Jenny Branson is a rock- er and shaker. We invited Jenny because she is a strong program builder and has a vision of how to bring people together for integrated care. She's wise." Whereas hospi- tals in large cities, including New York and Chicago, have had medical music therapy programs for nearly 20 years, says Loewy, it's unusual to find such programs in com- munities the size of Louisville. Instrumental therapy: A patient plays along with Audubon music therapist Jenny Branson (opposite page) in the music library, which includes conga drums, guitars and dulcimers. Among Branson's greatest gifts is a strik- ing tranquillity, which remains intact even during highly stressful situations, such as sitting bedside with a dying patient whose family is in the room or calming a petrified pre-op patient. Her co-workers describe her as low-key yet passionate, humble and resourceful, perceptive and focused. She's a problem-solver whose gentle deportment makes even agitated patients and families feel safe and comfortable with her. Doctors know music can decrease the need for some pain medications and have other clinical benefits, says Audubon sur- geon and medical director William Brad- ford, "but sometimes clinicians overlook the mental and spiritual part of healing. Tis is an area where people like Jenny are able to minister to patients. She has the ability to understand what someone needs." Audubon chaplain Keitha Brasler was an early advocate for music therapy. "It's a great benefit for patients," she says. "For one thing, it doesn't cost them anything." And it doesn't require a physician's order. 2.12 LOUISVILLE MAGAZINE [39]