Meet Walter Werzowa of HealthTunes in Hollywood

Today we’d like to introduce you to Walter Werzowa.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Walter. So, let’s start at the beginning, and we can move on from there.
I was born into a family of doctors in Austria, and instantly achieved the status “black sheep,” when I would not talk for years and even later on predominately communicated just through music. I see myself as “sound inventor, ” but they labeled me composer and musician.

This playful life turned exciting though: Now I have a wonderful and loving family. I received platinum records, built two companies, sold “Music Beyond” to BMG, worked with the best of the best from Spielberg to Wenders, created the ubiquitous Intel audio branding, and I still cannot sit still. All that was not the nucleus to building HealthTunes.

It happened because… when our, at the time five-year-old son Lucca experienced a rare bone syndrome, and western medicine could not offer answers nor remedy, a new journey started to unfold. Many tears and sleepless nights later, my wife Evelyne, delved into the unknown and became a licensed Healing Touch® practitioner. A mother’s love can move mountains, yes, that is what Evelyne did. She found the best osteopath and even was able to change Lucca’s aversion to needles during acupuncture treatments.

We implemented Sound Healing, a strict diet and just one year later, doctors looked amazed when they diagnosed Lucca’s accelerated healing. Currently, Lucca is running at least as fast as his friends, as if nothing ever had happened. The only reminder, Lucca is quite shy. While his peers had the chance to learn how to bond on playgrounds, Lucca spent hours in car rides from and to health appointments, missing out on social interaction.

Still, I am incredibly thankful; we owe to the world! The three of us learned exactly what we needed to learn; we awakened into a new life. There is something much bigger than us that guided; I want to reciprocate. So, a new idea developed in observing the need for noninvasive, academically researched healing. I founded HealthTunes, a streaming platform, which pairs sound/music with evidence-based clinical research.

This service turned into my Master’s Project at the University of Santa Monica. I graduated that summer from University gliding into a new phase in life. I was able to transform sadness into hope and joy. This journey made me vulnerable beyond belief, but it additionally enabled me to re-learn trusting and re-experiencing hope. In trust, the impossible turns possible!

Within my hope, I find the energy to continue, even when my perception aka ego, says “I cannot go on.” There is incredible academic research available for hospitals and doctors to start trusting in sound and music as a healing modality. I know that I am on my way to open a research center with musicians, doctors, psychologists and trusting, hopeful patients. What my colleagues and I have collected, composed and produced is now available to all.

HealthTunes is a free service, a 501 (c) (3), California non-profit. Phase one of HealthTunes® is already changing patient’s lives. Our goal is to assist those who are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Chronic Pain, ADHD, PTSD, and Sleep disorders, as well as enabling individuals to develop greater focus. There are sounds available to alleviate Chemotherapy patients of nausea; there are sounds to ease the strain under dialysis treatments.

The list goes on. We are developing hardware for NICU implementation, and algorithms to interpret biofeedback data. Just this last week, one of HealthTunes’ volunteer composers sent a video. It shows a preemie in NICU, with the high heart-rate of 172, and just one minute of preselected music the baby’s heart-rate eased to 155! I was crying of joy, with the baby’s mother.

HealthTunes was officially birthed June 18th, 2016 at the Cannes Lions Health. Thank you, Moby for your endorsement! A new future is here, and music is opening new gates to health.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The main struggle is and was: Health (hospitals, pharma, clinics) run on a different timeline than I was accustomed to. While I had to be able to write and produce a 5-minute orchestral piece in a day (at my “other” company Musikvergnuegen) I had to wait for a followup call days and even weeks. To get an IRB going, i.e., the ethics committee at UCLA allowing to perform a study takes 4-8 months. I take it with a grain of salt, and enjoy learning patience and fill the wait-time with additional projects.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with HealthTunes – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
My first company (MusikVergnuegen) produced film and commercial music. We took deadlines seriously. I composed the most performed melody in broadcast advertising – the INTEL mnemonic, everything in commercial production is on minute deadlines, and we often jokingly said:: we are like doctors, but no one will die if we deliver late.” This aspect has a new meaning in Health; I am working in a field of life and death situations.

When I receive a note from a mother of a preemie that HealthTunes was part of her baby’s healing journey, when I get a letter that our Oncology MusicMedicine made the patient glide through the chemotherapy without anxiety and nausea than I still get teary eyes of joy, and thank the gods of music for their gift, which they gave me to share with anyone.

I see myself as a little speck of the US and the world’s population, – if I can do my part to cost to zero in Health, then I hope that the governments eventually will find themselves to do the same. It breaks my heart to see families loos a family member to a terminal illness and then on top of that, go bankrupt.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Our future plans are that Health Insurances will implement HealthTunes not only to accelerate healing but also as a preventive tool. We will release our native iOS APP mid-2019 and will start implementing biosensors and ultimately AI for best results. The future is bringing us digital hospitals, self-driving cars, – places to allow healing and wellbeing, as a streaming modality. HealthTunes is and will be doing its share in those innovative places.

Contact Info:

• Address: 1800 S. Brand Blvd, Suite 114, Glendale, CA 91204
• Website: www.healthtunes.org
• Phone: 323-856-5900
• Email: walter@healthtunes.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healthtunes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HealthTunes.org/
• Twitter: @HealthTunes_org
• Other: https://vimeo.com/search?q=healthtunes

Image Credit:
John Luker/Adriana Wilbur/Evelyne Werzowa

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