New Report on Creative Engagement and Cardiac Health

(4-1-10) The Foundation for Art & Healing today releases the proceedings from its Arts and the Heart Roundtable, a gathering of luminaries from the medical, arts and public health sectors regarding the connection between creative engagement and cardiac health. Held during the summer of 2009 in New York, the goal of the meeting was to draw on research and clinical expertise as well as the direct experiences of cardiac patients who have found creative endeavors to aid in their own personal healing processes. The Roundtable participants concurred with the findings of the research review (since published in the American Journal of Public Health, February 2010) as related to cardiac health, calling for a greater range of research both in establishing the connection between creative engagement and positive changes in cardiac health, as well further understanding the connection. The Foundation has responded to this call for action, planning multiple pilot programs that will not only directly connect individuals with the healing power of creative engagement, but provide populations among which to conduct further evaluation and research.

“We were quite pleased with the participation in and results of the AHR,” stated Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH, Founder and President of the Foundation for Art & Healing. “The body of research connecting creative engagement to healing outcomes is compelling and it was wonderful to discuss what more could be done with such a fantastic group of minds.”