ArtEZ research explores new connections between music therapy and neonatal care
How do new insights emerge in the care of vulnerable newborns? According to researchers from the Music Therapy professorship, the answer does not lie within a single discipline, but precisely in collaboration between different fields of knowledge.
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This idea is central to the article Music therapy in tertiary neonatal intensive care: A matter of unlikely allies? by Professor of Music Therapy Artur Jaschke and colleagues. The publication, which is among the most-read and most-cited articles of 2025 in the scientific journal Acta Paediatrica, explores how music therapy, medicine and other disciplines can jointly contribute to the care of premature babies and their families.
Asking new questions
The article builds on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) research project by the Music Therapy professorship. Within this project, ArtEZ researchers work with national and international partners to explore how music therapy can contribute to stress reduction, neurological development and parent-child bonding in premature babies and their parents.
According to Jaschke, the article’s key message is not the role of one specific discipline, but the importance of collaboration between different fields of knowledge.
'Only when we dare to move beyond the boundaries of our own discipline can we explore new frontiers. It is precisely through de-disciplinary collaboration that new questions, new insights and new opportunities emerge to advance science and society."
By bringing together knowledge from music therapy, medical science and technological innovation, space is created for research questions that are difficult to identify from within separate disciplines.
Art, health and technology
The NICU project shows how artistic knowledge can contribute to complex issues within healthcare. Music therapy is explored not only as an intervention, but also as a way of looking differently at care, development and wellbeing.
Within the ArtEZ Research Centre, the research connects with the domain Ecologies of Art Practices, Health & Wellbeing, which focuses on the relationship between art practices, health and quality of life. At the same time, the project shows how collaboration between healthcare professionals, researchers, parents and technological partners can enable new forms of knowledge development.
A shift in healthcare
Jaschke sees the significant interest in the article as part of a broader development within research and healthcare: “We are at a point where many existing scientific frameworks are reaching their limits. This calls for new ways of thinking, researching and collaborating. The interest in this article shows that there is a need for new perspectives. I see this as a sign of a larger shift in healthcare, one to which we are trying to contribute through our research.”
In this way, the research underlines an important ambition of ArtEZ: to develop knowledge that emerges in the encounter between disciplines, professional practices and societal issues. Not from a single perspective, but from the conviction that complex challenges call for new connections.
