Anyone can relate to the soothing and rejuvenating qualities of a classic pop song or stirring classical sonata.
Now, with the help of its innovative AI technology, one Northern start-up is applying the restorative power of music to dementia patients.
MediMusic has created an app and streaming device called MediBeat to “dispense music as medicine” by helping patients combat pain, anxiety and stress through soothing tunes.
“There are over 25,000 papers that have extolled the benefits of music to help the great thinkers from our past from Plato, Confucius, Tolstoy all the way through to Martin Luther King,” Gary Jones, MediMusic CEO and co-founder, told Prolific North.
“Where we make a difference is that we’re able to dispense music as medicine, we hope as medicine, where it reduces heart rate.”
It’s a project that has been in the making for the past eight years, evolving from his own personal experience.
After spending 36 years mostly between London and the US, he began visiting Yorkshire after his ex mother-in-law was diagnosed with dementia.
“I saw her go from being a very strong-minded, strong-willed farmer’s wife looking after the cattle of a farm, to someone who had vascular dementia as a result of going into hospital from breaking a hip.
“It came on very, very quickly and it was tragic,“ he said. “The thing about dementia, it doesn’t just affect the individual who’s diagnosed with it, it also affects the family around them.”
Unable to communicate, it soon spiralled into a “frustrating” situation for her husband Brian who relied on her.
“The only time they ever really engaged together, and he was happier, was when music was playing.”
Toying around with an algorithm he’d written a few years prior, he began playing tracks to her.
“I started building playlists and had to try and calm her down when she was getting agitated based on the algorithm that I designed. And it worked.”
Monthly visits turned into regular stays as he “fell in love with this part of the world in Yorkshire”.
As his partner opted to move back to London, he decided to stay in Hull.
