How else does DocuMT save me time?  By providing me an efficient means of session planning!  

First, set up your list of materials and commonly used interventions.  Then, as you write your session plan you can add text to your intervention (some days I need more reminders of how I plan to carry out the session than others), and you can check off what materials you need for each intervention.  DocuMT automatically generates a list of materials needed for the whole session - making it easier to pack up and go!

This is where DocuMT really saves me valuable time!  Like many fellow music therapists I am also a busy mom which means multi tasking is... well... life!  I start my session by selecting my documentation template, session plan, and participants. During my session, I can easily toggle at the top of the screen between my document field and my session plan - if there is something I want to document on quickly in the moment.  Because DocuMT is so efficient to use, I've been able to quickly and thoroughly document using my phone or laptop while sitting in the parking lot before heading off to my next session or to pick up my daughter.  

When I'm done entering my documentation, DocuMT sends a report of that session right to the client's email!  No longer do I drive away from the session wishing that the treatment team or caregivers of my participants could have been present in today's music therapy session to see the participant's great progress.  I know that they will be able to read all about the session the next time they check their email!

What is your style of documentation?  Do you often track the frequency of specific behaviors?  Do you use rating scales?  Or maybe you prefer documenting with narration.  DocuMT can support all of those styles of documentation.  Once you identify the domains to include in your template ( fine motor, affect, receptive communication etc.) you can chose to document within that domain using a therapist identified rating scale, frequency count, narration or any combination.  

It may seem a bit odd/limiting at first to use rating scales for documentation.  The DocuMT system bases its rating systems on numeric values so that you can better track your participant's progress over time.  It is important to not be think of these numeric ratings as 'grading' your participants.  

As an example, imagine that you currently use a list of descriptors to illustrate your participant's affect.  It may not be immediately obvious how a numeric scale maps to specific behaviors.  That is, it may not be 'better/appropriate' to have a 'bright' affect as compared to a 'flat' affect, but listing such descriptors on a numeric scale allows you to more easily see how your participant's affect has changed (or trended) over time.  You can also use additional descriptive language.  For example, this is one rating scale I use to track affect:

0 - Appears asleep through most or all of session

1 - Mostly flat or blunted affect

2 - Somewhat limited range of affect

3 - Demonstrates an appropriate range of affect, changing in response to music and interaction

Both frequency count and rating scales will include an optional narrative field, allowing me to further describe the participant's response such as "Betty demonstrated a bright affect through most of today's session, but was notably tearful during the song 'Moon River.'  She expressed to the therapist that the song reminded her of dancing with her husband."

If you're not sure if your current documentation style will fit into DocuMT's system - ask us!  I bet we can make it work!!

DocuMT continues to grow and improve!  One idea we would like to implement in the future is the ability for therapists in the system to share their documentation templates with each other, so stay tuned for that!  Let us know if you think this would be a good idea in the feedback!

Once you have set up your clients, it's time to add participants.  DocuMT maintains participant confidentiality while keeping the cost of the system low by having the therapist only store the participant's first name.  If you have two clients with the same first name, it's fine to include the last name initial (i.e., Betty S., Betty J.) but I usually do not use first name initial with full last name (i.e., BSmith, BJohnson).  

I often lead group sessions that may not be attended by the exact same group of participants each week.  I find it very helpful that once I add my participants to the client, I can check off who is present in the room as I begin my session - making documentation so much easier!  

The facilities where I contract have also taken notice of my ability to remember the first names of each individual in a group of older adults - even if I haven't seen the individual for a few weeks.  They don't realize that I've pulled up a list of all my past participants from that facility, using DocuMT on my phone.  

Take a look below on a video on how to set up your participants.  

In the DocuMT system, the 'client' is the person or facility that hired you and your business.  For me, most of my 'clients' are memory care facilities, and the 'participants' are the residents of the facility.  I send my documentation reports to the staff member that contracted my services.  As you'll see later, DocuMT generates links for the documentation of each participant - so my contact staff person can easily share the individualized links with the rest of the treatment team and caregivers.  This allows me to contribute to the residents care - even though I'm not an employee of the memory care facility.  (I also love how DocuMT allows me to generate individualized documentation easily, even when I lead groups!  ...but more on that later).  

When you work with individual clients, you can set up the parent/caregiver as the client.  Imagine, how much a parent would appreciate receiving weekly updates on their child's progress in music therapy directly in their email inbox! Take a look below for the video on setting up your clients.  

One of the first things the DocuMT system has you do is set up your business information.  By doing this, the logo of my private practice and my contact information appears on all documentation reports that I send out to my clients!  I really value how DocuMT allows me to include my own branding, which allows me to maintain my brand and image with my clients.  Take a look below for a quick video on setting up your business in DocuMT.

Thanks for taking a look at DocuMT!

DocuMT has 'how to' videos throughout the system.  Look for the question mark on the lower right hand corner of each page as you get started to access the videos.  Watch the video below to get started!

If you have questions, or feedback, drop us a note here!

Have a cool research project that needs the help of a documenting tool? Let us know!

At DocuMT, we have a great relationship with a number of Universities across the country, and support research in a broad range of disciplines: engineering, business, healthcare, and (evidence-based(!)) nursing.

Our data scientists salivate at the opportunity to work in new domains.  Have specific data requirements?  Need help processing your data into an easy to use format?  Not comfortable with advanced mathematics and statistics?  Do not fear,  we are here to help!

DocuMT was supported in many ways by grant money and research (some of us even research and teach at universities!), so we understand the nuances that come with working in a research and academic environments.  We also understand the difficulties of funding (particularly outside of STEM fields).  We will work with you and your budget to make sure that you get the most out of DocuMT.   If you want to talk about how we can work together in your research, drop us a line!

We look forward to engaging more in Music Therapy research!

Hello fellow Music Therapists!

Documentation is such a critical part of what makes Music Therapy so powerful.  Like most of you, I spend a significant amount of my time outside my clinical practice documenting and planning - something that is necessary, but tough to do with everything else going on!

Because I wanted to find something more secure (and efficient) than paper documenting, I started a search to see if something existed that fit my needs.  A few things I looked for:

• Generalized documentation in the style that supports our MT-BC field
• Clean, easy interface (on my iPhone is a plus!)
• Ability to share my documentation with my clients
• Session planning

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything.  While there are a number of charting systems (EMRs like Epic) and general note taking applications that I have used in the past, they are either expensive and hard to use, or not specific to Music Therapy.

So, I forged ahead and partnered with a technology company ( Technicity - developer of a platform called HealthQRS) that seemed to understand the gap in the market and was willing to work with me to develop a documentation platform specifically for music therapists. I really stressed a few important points during the design process:

• Focus on documentation - make it as generalized without sacrificing usability
• Clean, easy to use interface - especially on a mobile phone
• Keep the price as low as possible!
• Focus on HIPAA and privacy
• Make it accessible for students
• Allow functionality to support research in the future

In just a few weeks, we had an initial platform up and running, allowing me to demo to some of my colleagues, and using it with my own clients!

DocuMT is still young, and has a lot of growing to do, but I hope that you can help me guide the development and the platform to make it as useful as possible to our community.

Try it out, let me know personally, or leave feedback in the app.

Happy documenting!