Music Therapy to Address Patients' Journeys With Chronic Illness, Outcomes, and Readmission (MAJOR CHORD RCT): A Randomized Controlled Trial

For the intervention arm, in-person sessions will be conducted at the discretion of the music therapist and at a convenient time for the participant. Post-discharge music therapy sessions will be conducted virtually via secure telehealth platform (i.e., Zoom for Healthcare) with participants at home, skilled nursing facility, or in the hospital, if readmitted, while the music therapist is stationed at UHCMC or another UH facility in a private location. Reminder phone calls and MyCap messages will be completed one day prior to the scheduled virtual session. Links to the virtual session will be sent at the time of scheduling and again just prior to the session.

For both arms, follow-up measures will be completed using REDCap surveys sent via Twilio text message at 15- and 30-days following the hospital discharge date. REDCap will be used to collect the PROMIS - 29, Perceived Stress Scale - 4 (PSS-4), PROMIS General Self-Efficacy 4a, PROMIS Instrumental Support 4a, and PROMIS Emotional Support 4a scores at (1) Baseline, (2) 15-days post discharge, and (3) 30-days post discharge, with REDCap ensuring these are delivered on the nearest weekday rather than a weekend. Reminder texts will be sent out at day 16 & 17 and day 31 & 32 for those who do not complete their follow-up assessments following the initial prompt.

Board-certified music therapists (i.e., MT-BC credential) will provide two music therapy sessions, not to occur on the same day, that include education and disease-specific content (e.g., harmonica exercises for respiratory health [COPD] or music-based breathing exercises [HF]) prior to patients' discharge and two virtual music therapy sessions that address music-assisted relaxation and imagery, additional techniques for managing psychosocial stressors, and gratitude exercises post-discharge. Each music therapy session will include (1) setting an agenda; (2) an explanation of the music exercise; (3) a demonstration of the music exercise in which the MT-BC will engage the participant in practicing the music exercise (e.g., breathing, imagery, harmonica exercise); (4) time to process the participant's response to the exercise; (5) time for the MT-BC to electronically deliver the music exercise to the participant and ensure that the participant has all materials necessary to use the exercise at home; and (6) a homework assignment for the participant to practice the music exercise taught in that session at least once per day until the following MT session. The genres of each music exercise will be personalized to participants' preferences (e.g., hip-hop, gospel, R&B, jazz, rock, and/or soul). Each music exercise will last an average of 12 minutes. As the music exercises are being demonstrated, the MT-BC will simultaneously record the exercise as it is being delivered live. These recordings will be created in a high-quality recording studio, using either (1) a mobile unit in the participant's hospital room during in-person sessions or (2) a virtual music therapy studio at UH Cleveland Medical Center or the music therapist's private office at another UH facility during virtual sessions while participants are at home or in a care facility. The participant will hear the music live and receive a recording at the end of each session for their homework assignment. Each participant's voice may be recorded as part of the second virtual music therapy intervention (i.e., fourth of four sessions) which features a personalized songwriting intervention to which the patient can choose to contribute their voice. These recordings will be uploaded to a personalized UH Enterprise Box folder created for each participant. In-person MT sessions will be audio-recorded, and virtual sessions will be audio and video recorded through UH Zoom for Healthcare for quality assurance and fidelity checking. Recordings will be uploaded to a password-protected secure server and removed from recording devices. MT sessions will be reviewed for quality assurance for the first 5 participants and every 5th participant thereafter.

At the request of the participant, study staff may meet with the participant either in-person prior to discharge or virtually post-discharge to assist the participant in accessing Zoom and practicing the skills needed for videoconferencing (e.g., joining audio, muting, unmuting).

Participants will receive text message links every 7 days following the first music therapy session to log their home exercise activity.