Vator: "Today's Entrepreneur: Brian Harris"

“Today's Entrepreneur is Brian Harris, co-founder and the CEO of MedRhythms. MedRhythms is a digital therapeutics company that uses sensors, music, and AI to build evidence-based, neurologic interventions to measure and improve walking.

Harris is passionate, motivated, and committed to bringing high-quality care to everyone across the globe. His vision inspired the creation of MedRhythms and has allowed the company to expand and evolve to better serve patients. After completing his undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2011, Brian Harris received his masters in Music Therapy.

Harris has since become a Board-Certified Music Therapist with specialized training in Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT). He later received advanced training in the field, becoming one of only 250 people in the world with the distinction of NMT Fellow. Harris was hired as the first NMT at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, where, in 2015, he founded the clinical division of MedRhythms.

Since 2013, Harris has delivered over 100 presentations on the clinical application of music at venues around the world, including Harvard Medical School, the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, Alpert Medical School at Brown University, the American Academy of Neurological Surgeons, and Stanford Medical Center.

He is the CEO of MedRhythms and lives in Portland, Maine, where he works at the headquarters for the company's recently launched medical device division. In his spare time, he enjoys playing ping pong, watching college basketball and traveling…..”

MedRhythms Therapy Hits 10,000 Treatment Hours and Continues to Expand!

(Boston, MA) MedRhythms Therapy, a company providing Neurologic Music Therapy (NMT) to help people recover from neurologic injuries and diseases has recently reached a significant clinical milestone. In August of 2018, the MedRhythms Therapy clinical team surpassed 10,000 hours of direct patient care since its inception in 2013. "We are extremely proud of this accomplishment as it is progress toward our mission of providing this quality of care to everyone who needs it,” said CEO Brian Harris, "our clinical team works diligently in a variety of settings including inpatient, outpatient, in-home, and facilitating groups for various organizations, which has allowed us to achieve this monumental milestone." MedRhythms Therapy is also involved in several cutting edge partnerships including The Boston University Aphasia Resource Center Aphasia Chorus, and The Brain Music Workshop. MedRhythms started its flagship program at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, the #2 rehabilitation hospital in the United States, and has built this program to be the most comprehensive program of its kind in the country. As a company, MedRhythms Therapy strives to continue launching such groups while growing its thriving clinical in-home program focusing on individual sessions. Harris states, “Our team is dedicated to advancing our business while continuing to utilize the most current neuroscience research to achieve optimum outcomes in the treatment of neurologic injuries and diseases.”

Neurologic Music Therapy is the therapeutic application of music to cognitive, sensory, and motor dysfunctions due to neurologic disease or injury. NMT interventions are rooted in the neuroscience research of how music is processed and perceived in the brain, and how this affects non-musical brain and behavior function. The team of clinicians at MedRhythms Therapy are all board certified music therapists and have additional certification in NMT. Additionally, several of our therapists hold the distinguished fellow credential, of which there are only 250 in the world.

In conjunction with this important clinical milestone, and aligning with it’s mission of bringing this quality of care to everyone that needs it, MedRhythms Therapy is pleased to announce that going forward they will be implementing a program to provide pro bono services to select patients who aren’t able to afford the out of pocket expense. Implementing this program has played an integral role in the mission and vision of MedRhythms Therapy. We are grateful for the continued growth and development of our clinical program, which allows us to offer it at this time.  

“We have had a wonderful association with MedRhythms from its beginning nearly five years ago. It has been, and continues to be, an exceptional experience with outstanding results. With the expertise, patience, encouragement and empathy of the dedicated therapists, Dr. Aiello has gained the confidence and skills to communicate with those he loves. It is with great pride that we have witnessed the ongoing growth of MedRhythms into an organization that facilitates the recovery of so many people.”

~ Dr. & Mrs. Lloyd M. Aiello

MedRhythms Therapy has been built on the foundational belief that everyone with a neurologic injury or disease deserves access to the level of care provided by NMT. At MedRhythms Therapy, we are working every day to expand access, and look forward to the day when Neurologic Music Therapy is available and fully integrated into rehabilitation, so that anyone who experiences a neurologic injury or disease will have access to NMT as part of their recovery.

Interested in clinical services or in partnering with MedRhythms Therapy? Contact us!  hello@medrhythmstherapy.com or (781)-629-9713

FORBES: Music Heals: MedRhythms Uses Music To Treat Traumatic Brain Injury

Amidst all of the chatter about music as it relates to business models, it can be easy to forget that music is unlike other "inputs" or assets that businesses utilize. This is true for all art forms, of course, but music - for a variety of reasons - dominates the conversations around the challenges of attempting to commoditize art.

I'm sure I speak for not only music fans, but also for those who work in the music business, when I say that music has value that far exceeds monetization. For many - myself included - music has saved their lives.

Amidst my contributions to the above-referenced chatter, I'd like to utilize this space to profile some companies who are using music to heal.

To that end, I spoke recently with Brian Harris HRS +1.5%, the CEO of MedRhythms. MedRhythms uses neurologic music therapy to treat those with neurologic injury or disease.

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Boston Herald: The Sound of Music Therapy

A local company is treating patients who suffer from neurological disorders and brain injuries with the healing powers of music, a type of therapy researchers say is gaining traction in the medical world.

MedRhythms, founded by 26-year-old Brian Harris — who earned his master’s degree in music therapy from Lesley University in Cambridge — uses rhythm and melodies to help combat the effects of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, autism and the aftermath of strokes.

“It’s incredible to watch someone who’s lost language or lost movement take their first step and say their first word with music,” Harris said. “The really interesting thing about this work is that we often see drastic changes.”

The company has a handful of employees, but is looking to expand. Harris said the staff has logged nearly 1,000 clinical hours in total.

MedRhythms, the first neurologic music therapy company in New England, uses music’s ability to engage patients who face challenges with speech and movement.

“It could be singing or walking to a rhythm, or engaging in a task that challenges their mind,” Harris said. “Every time someone has a response to it, and it happens a lot, it absolutely amazes me.”

Harris is trained on the drums and viola, but was not interested in pursuing music education or live performance.

Music therapy “just made sense,” he said.

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BostInno: How a NeuroRehab Startup is Harnessing Music to Heal Brain Injury Patients

Even before there was any research to explain it or prove it, we knew that music can have healing powers—both for our bodies and minds. But as new neuroscience research has emerged, we’ve learned that singing or playing an instrument not only activates our entire brain—from areas involved in attention and memory to language processing—but can actually change it, strengthening old connections or forming new ones. Over the past 15 years, the neurologic music therapy field has evolved from that research, demonstrating the direct improvements that music can cause in people with language or cognitive difficulties due to stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, or traumatic brain injuries. And with this movement, MedRhythms emerged to harness music’s healing capabilities and extend them to more patients.

Brian Harris, founder and CEO of the Boston company, is one of 250 NMT fellows in the world. The idea for MedRhythms—New England’s first neurologic music therapy company—came about very naturally for Harris, who says music and science have always been his primary passions. A trained drummer and violist since age 8, he always knew his career would involve music, but admits he didn’t want to take the performance or education route. Then he heard about music therapy.

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