MUMBAI: In response to a recent surge in studies that integrate medicine and music, SAGE, the world's leading independent academic and professional publisher, is pleased to launch Music and Medicine in July, a new interdisciplinary journal that will incorporate the research that combines the two disciplines.

This new official Journal of the International Association for Music and Medicine is peer reviewed and edited by Joanne Loewy, DA, LCAT, MT-BC, Director of the distinguished Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, and David Aldridge, PhD, FRSM, Director of the notable Nordoff-Robbins Zentrum, Witten, for applied music in health care practice and research, Germany. With the goal of bringing together information that is currently scattered across many disciplines and throughout many publications, Music and Medicine will focus on studies that integrate the science of medicine with the art of music, and the art of medicine with the science of music.

The journal covers a number of subjects about how music and medicine interact, including:

Analgesia and music sedation

Cancer care: active and receptive music approaches

Cardiology and rhythm

Dementia, stroke and music memory

Infant stimulation

Music during surgery

Stress response and music relaxation

"Our intention is to provide a venue for the development of theory based on practice, and we will draw on specific research in music and medicine," said co-editor Loewy.

"We invite participation through dialogue about the impact that music has upon the brain, for human physiology, and in developing unique clinical areas, such as sleep investigations and pain management," said co-editor Aldridge.

Music and Medicine will be published bi-annually in 2009 and quarterly beginning in 2010 with an innovative journal launch strategy — free online access for the first three years for individuals through December 2011. For more information, visit http://mmd.sagepub.com.