Some of my friends say to me, “Yoko, you’re a musician. Just create soothing music and license it to hospitals. You don’t need to do all this research!” But it’s very important to me that my work — the sound I create — is evidence-based. I want to be at the intersection of art, science and design so that I can truly make a difference and alleviate suffering, whether that’s at the end or the beginning of life. – from an interview with Yoko at Seven Ponds blog
from Sen Sound
Tao Talk 
I had no idea this was even a thing! What a wonderfully expansive use for electronic music.
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This is incredible, Lisa, and what an amazing idea Yoko Sen has for hospital sounds. Thanks for sharing.
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The issue of hospital alarms is complex. Bed and chair exit alarms are used as a safety precaution and to decrease use of restraints. If the alarm is too sensitive, it goes off with weight shifts. If not sensitive enough, it goes off after you fall.
As for the pleasantness of sounds, an alarm is meant to be alarming. If the sound is too pleasant, it is more likely to be ignored. There is a reason that emergency vehicles have an array of siren sounds – they keep you from getting too used to the sound, and they vary depending on the level of urgency. A fire truck will use a different tone on the open road than at an intersection.
Alarm fatigue is partly due to the need to think about what requires an alarm or sound and what doesn’t. There is seldom (never?) need for a heart monitor to beep with every heartbeat. A heart stopping is a different matter.
The hospital I worked in eliminated most overhead (via speakers) paging by using pagers and cell phones to contact people individually as needed. That can’t always work for alarms. If I’m with another patient, an alarm that summons only me might not get help fast enough – some alarms need to be answered by whomever is closest. If your heart stops, you want someone doing CPR now, not in a little while. You don’t want to wait for a specific person to get there.
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Fascinating post Lisa. When you listen to her ideas you wonder why no one else thought of this before. Maybe they did and didn’t know what to do about it. Having spent a two month stretch in hospital with a condition that heightened my hearing, any mitigation demonstrated here would have been a very welcome change. And perhaps a little sleep! I truly hope her ideas are implemented. Thanks Lisa.
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This is very interesting. I’ve heard of ambient artists before but she uses it in a different way. She shapes something out of sounds…not the ordinary thing…I think this is what Lennon was striving for in Revolution #9…
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