Hand Therapy for Musicians by Dr. Aviva Wolff
Aviva works with individual musicians and musical groups to educate, prevent and manage performance related injuries. She uses a customized approach that is based on the player’s specific instrument and performance demands to promote healthy habits and avoid injury. She is available for individual consultations and group presentations.
This paper proposes a conceptual framework using implementation science methodology to study the factors that influence adoption of musician health education programs to prevent performance related injury. The overall goal of this methodology is to identify determinants of implementation by en- gaging key stakeholders, developing strategies for adoption of injury prevention programs and generate hypotheses for future studies.
The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility and effect of a formalized injury prevention education workshop on incidence and severity of musculoskeletal pain in a cohort of musician-students attending an intensive summer music festival compared to controls. The high compliance and willingness to participate suggests that injury prevention education implementation is feasible. Our preliminary findings suggest a positive effect on pain incidence and pain interference in the intervention group. Future studies will examine the relationship between adherence levels and injury rates in a larger cohort and identify obstacles to implementation
This paper describes an evidenced-based framework for the assessment, prevention, and treatment of musculoskeletal musician injuries to provide clinicians with an instrument-specific, and musician-centered guide for practice. We synthesized available literature on instrumental ergonomics, biomechanical demands, and upper extremity injuries to highlight the risks and common upper-extremity pathologies, focusing on the specific demands of instrumental groups: piano, high strings (violin and viola), low strings (cello and bass), percussion, woodwinds, and brass. Targeted assessment, prevention, and treatment strategies are reviewed in this context to provide healthcare providers with an evidence- based framework to approach the treatment of PRMD to mitigate incidence of injury during practice and performance.
