About Us

Healing Healthcare Systems was founded in 1992 by Susan Mazer and Dallas Smith, two acknowledged pioneers in the use of music as environmental design for healthcare facilities.

Trained as classical musicians, we are a husband and wife team that spent the first 20 years of our careers as full-time performing and recording artists. After being approached by several hospitals and becoming aware of the need for television programming specific to the needs of patients and staff, we decided to refocus our efforts on creating healing environments.

Since 1984, in making the transition from performing to consulting and creating products for clinical environments, we have deepened our understanding of the capacity of sound in the form of either music or noise, to impact the quality of the patient experience.

In more recent years, our involvement with hospitals has necessarily expanded to include what we call the dynamic components of the environment, those that are non-fixed, changeable, and affected by patients, families, and staff. Therefore, we are concerned with issues such as hospital noise, clutter, communications, and patient-provider relationship outcomes.

Philosophy

We believe that music, in its highest form, transforms the perception of time and place, which affect how patients experience their illness. Rather than relying solely on the aesthetic quality or the artist's intention of the music that people choose, we go further in concentrating on the environmental outcome that music can produce.

We acknowledge that there are many theories about the power of music, but consider the use of music as a context for the recovery process to provide the most comprehensive means of supporting patients, families, and caregivers.

Therefore, the focus of our work at Healing HealthCare Systems (HHS) is on developing tools that use music as environmental design in the healthcare setting, and providing technical and educational support based on its implications for the patient experience.