Tuesday, 5 February 2008

When flautist Anita Fuhrmann began studying music as a 17 year-old in The University of Western Australia's School of Music in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, little did she imagine that after completing her bachelor's degree she would be working on a PhD in a completely different faculty.

The 23 year-old, who still plays her flute and teaches music, is now jointly enrolled in the School of Population Health in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and the School of Music.  Her research is pioneering in a field that is growing around the world: performing arts medicine.

Just as sports medicine was a new concept about 30 years ago, so her discipline is gaining international recognition.  She will attend a conference organised by the North American Performance Arts Medicine Association in the US later this year where she will present her work, which is an assessment of the respiratory health and lung function of musicians, a project undertaken with her supervisor, Dr Peter Franklin and Dr Suzie Wijsmann, as well as senior respiratory scientist, Dr Graham Hall.

"Breathing control and lung function are important for wind instrument players, but the impact of wind playing on lung function has not been fully assessed and the current data are conflicting," Miss Fuhrmann said.

"The aim of this study is to compare the lung function of wind and brass musicians to that of non-wind musicians using several measures, including spirometry and lung-volume and airway responsiveness tests.

"We are also looking at the prevalence of asthma among musicians - wind and brass players compared to others.  We want to know what effect, if any, playing a wind or brass instrument has on asthma and have sent out questionnaires to more than 1,500 musicians of all ages."

Miss Fuhrmann, Dr Franklin and Dr Hall would like to hear from musicians interested in taking part in the study, expected to be finished in mid-2009.

Media references

Anita Fuhrmann  61 8  9346 7946
Simone Hewett / Sally-Ann Jones (UWA Public Affairs)  61 8  6488 7977
0420 790 097 / 0420 790 098

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