INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES

AND HEALTH CARE TO BE HELD AT UN HEADQUARTERS, 9 JUNE

 

The international conference “Promoting an Enabling Environment:  Music, Technology, Culture and Health Care” will take place at United Nations Headquarters, the Economic and Social Council Chamber, on Thursday, 9 June, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The event will examine how information and communication technologies (ICT) can improve health care delivery, staff efficiency and effectiveness, and how the power of musical rhythm can be utilized in health care delivery.  It will address applications related to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in terms of creating partnerships and improving the health of citizens worldwide.

Topics include ICT as an enabling tool for rural and urban delivery of health-care services, including the use of telecentres and mobile centres for tele-health, tele-diagnosis and tele-rehabilitation; emerging technologies in music and medicine; the power of music in creating a dialogue among children; and new understanding of the impact of musical rhythms and its utilization as a medical tool.

After opening remarks by Dr. Mathew Lee, Chairman and Medical Director, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, New YorkUniversity, the first session will focus on current research.  The speakers are Dr. Max Hilz, Department of Neurology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Dr. Yeou-Cheng Ma, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Executive Director, the Children’s Orchestra Society; and Dr. Patrick Whelan, Department of Pediatric Rheumatology, Massachusetts GeneralHospital.  Marc Segueira, ICT Department, New Jersey Institute of Technology, will demonstrate a new “ICT drum”.  The moderator will be Maestro Dr. Samuel Wong, Principal Conductor, Hong Kong Philharmonic and President, Global Music Healing Institute.

The second session, on enabling environments, will be addressed by Craig Lehmann, School of Health Technology and Management, Stony Brook University; Amir Lahav, The Music, Mind and Motion Lab, Boston University and Harvard Medical School; Alexandre Sidorenko, Focal Point on Ageing, United Nations Programme on Ageing; Sergei Kambalov, Deputy Executive Coordinator, United Nations ICT Task Force; and Sonia Elliott, Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Dianne Davis, Founding President, International Council for Caring Communities, will make the closing remarks.

The event is part of a series organized by the International Council for Caring Communities in collaboration with the United Nations ICT Task Force, the Programme on Ageing of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New YorkUniversity and the Global Music Healing Institute.

For further information, please contact Enrica Murmura, ICT Task Force Secretariat, tel.:  (212) 963-5913, e-mail:  murmura@un.org.

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