Research – Department of Health Sciences
The Health Sciences Department at IMC Krems carries out research into therapeutic and nursing care. There is also an emphasis on testing and developing treatment measures for patients.
Interdisciplinary collaboration generates new findings
Research in the Department of Health Sciences may look at interventions systematically developed by the department itself, or alternatively the focus is on systematic testing of existing interventions. Measuring the outcomes is an important part of the implementation and evaluation process.
The department carries out interdisciplinary research projects, with an emphasis on possible practical applications. The projects concentrate on topics such as health promotion, prevention and rehabilitation, as well as the entire human life cycle – from birth right through to professional care in old age. Chronic conditions are another focus area.
Our research centres on the distinct perspectives and needs of all those affected – be it clients and their relatives or the various health experts involved. Another priority is finding ways to involve patients and doctors in evaluations.
The aim is to bring practice and research closer together.
Research focus areas: Department of Health Sciences
In the Department of Health Sciences we concentrate our research activities on the following main research focuses
Expanding the understanding of the concept of personalisation in the therapeutic environment to the "individual aspect" of the patient with the objective of tailoring the right therapy at the right point in time within the context of a successful therapeutic relationship.
Development of new technology, applications of existing technologies and their effect on health professionals, patients and their family members, analysis of opportunities and risks and of ethical questions.
Impacts of demographic change on the practice of health professionals, in particular later motherhood, regional socioeconomic disparities and ageing population.
Development, testing and evaluation of new therapeutic and care interventions with the objective of improving clinical practice (outcome research). Investigation of supporting and inhibiting factors for the development, testing and evaluation of new interventions with the objective of improving sustainable integration of outcomes into clinical practice (implementation research).
Investigation of the effects of preventive and curative applications on physical and mental wellbeing, primarily in respect of the potential for reducing stress, effects on social relations and the dose-effect relationship.

Institute Nursing Science

Institute Therapeutic and Midwifery Sciences

Josef Ressel Centre
For establishing principles of personalised music therapy.
Over the last decade, the term “personalised medicine” has become increasingly important in the areas of pharmacogenetics, pharmacogenomics, clinical diagnostics and in particular in chrono-pharmacology, which is concerned with the optimum time for administering medication. In 2016, IMC Krems responded to this development by setting up the Josef Ressel Centre for establishing principles of personalised music therapy, based in Krems.

Music therapy: the power of sound
Positive resonance – including in patients with severe brain damage
This Josef Ressel Centre is dedicated to devising evidencebased scientific principles for personalised music therapy in selected areas of neurological rehabilitation. Many clinical case reports prepared in the course of the therapy process include descriptions of resonance experienced between the therapist and the patient. Such phenomena are difficult to comprehend scientifically, but are even described in accounts of music therapy treatment of patients with serious brain damage (e.g. traumatic brain injury, hypoxia, stroke, etc.).