If you are recovering from an ailment, your new Rx may be music. Doctors are turning to tunes to help manage pain after surgery for their patients.
A recent article by the Associated Press chronicles how music can help improve patient lives at UC San Diego Health, where one medical nurse offers music on request, playing everything from folk songs to Minuet in G Major to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The results are positive: The nurse has observed improvements in patients’ vital signs, including lower heart rates and blood pressure. Some patients have even requested fewer painkillers after listening to music.
There is science behind melodies that make us feel better. Recent research reveals how music—the tunes that we choose, in particular—can affect pain levels. Studies cited in the journals Pain and Scientific Reports have suggested that listening to music can either reduce the perception of pain or enhance a person’s ability to tolerate it.
“We know that almost all of the brain becomes active when we engage in music,” Kate Richards Geller, a registered music therapist in Los Angeles told the AP. “That changes the perception and experience of pain—and the isolation and anxiety of pain.”
In another study, UC Irvine researchers revealed that specific music can make a difference, as “mindfully listening to jazz, improvisational, or unpredictable music” can reduce chronic musculoskeletal pain.
Whether it’s calming melodies in hospital settings or personalized playlists for patients in recovery, music has become a tool in patient care. Standards that support acoustics, digital audio formats, and musical instruments allow healthcare providers to reliably deliver the music to patients when they need it most, helping transform a simple song into a powerful healing mechanism.
The Acoustical Society of America (ASA), a member and accredited standards developer of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), has developed many American National Standards (ANS) that support music, including everything from acoustical terminology with ANS ASA/ANSI S1.1-2013 (R2024) to ANSI/ASA S12.50-2002/ISO 3740-2000, the standard that support the determination of sound power levels of noise sources.
For singing performances, IEC 60268-4, Sound system equipment – Part 4: Microphones, developed by IEC Technical Committee 100: Audio, video and multimedia systems and equipment, is an international standard guiding method of measurement for the electrical impedance, sensitivity, directional response pattern, dynamic range, and external influences of sound system microphones.
Another international standard, ISO/IEC 23003-1:2007, Information Technology – MPEG Audio Technologies – Part 1: MPEG Sound, guides multi-channel audio compression technology that can be used efficiently for “surround sound” through many different devices. The standard was developed by ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC) 1, Information technology, Subcommittee (SC) 29, Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information. The U.S. plays a leading role in JTC 1, with ANSI serving as Secretariat and INCITS administering the U.S. Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to JTC1 and SC 29.
As music melodies emerge as a therapeutic tool across medical systems, standards—and the people who develop them—play an important role as unsung heroes behind the healing.