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Coro Health calls itself "The Sound of Healthcare" UC Davis trial: depression down 54%, agitation down 34% in dementia residents MusicFirst library spans eight decades - Buddy Holly to Taylor Swift 5,000+ care communities · 300+ hospitals · 1M+ annual users Founded 2008 in Austin, Texas by David Schofman & Leanne Flask Coro Health calls itself "The Sound of Healthcare" UC Davis trial: depression down 54%, agitation down 34% in dementia residents MusicFirst library spans eight decades - Buddy Holly to Taylor Swift 5,000+ care communities · 300+ hospitals · 1M+ annual users Founded 2008 in Austin, Texas by David Schofman & Leanne Flask
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CORO HEALTH — Austin, Texas. The therapeutic-music and spiritual-support streaming service built for care settings, not consumers.
Company · Digital Health

Coro Health Therapeutic music, engineered like medicine.

The largest specialized music and spiritual-support streaming service in healthcare - turning the right song, at the right moment, into a measurable clinical intervention.

music therapydementia caresenior livingfaith contentdigital health
Founded
2008
HQ
Austin Texas
Team
44 people
Funding
$2M Series A
Reach
1M+ annual users
The Dispatch

A prescription you can hum

Coro Health starts from a simple, stubborn observation: music moves people that medicine sometimes cannot reach. In a memory-care wing during the anxious hours of late afternoon, there is often no pill that settles a resident. Coro Health's answer is not a drug but a program - a stream of songs, prayers, and readings assembled on purpose for one person's history and one desired outcome.

The company operates a fully licensed streaming service designed exclusively for healthcare environments - senior living, skilled nursing, hospice, home health, and hospitals. It is not a repackaged consumer app. Every element, from the licensing to the sequencing of tracks, is built for care settings where the listener may have dementia, be recovering from surgery, or be nearing the end of life.

Its flagship product, MusicFirst, is powered by a patented Music Prescription Builder. Designed by music therapists, neuroscientists, and music designers, the tool asks three questions - who is the listener, what is their condition, and what outcome do we want - then generates a therapeutic program with modes for waking, relaxing, energizing, and sleep. The library spans eight decades, from Buddy Holly and Tony Bennett to Bob Marley and Taylor Swift.

Coro Health handles the music licensing itself. That unglamorous detail is a real unlock: it means a caregiver can legally cue up the mainstream songs that actually resonate with a resident, without the legal tangle that sinks most music-therapy apps.

Alongside the music sits FaithFirst - a multi-faith spiritual library spanning Catholic, Christian, Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, Native American, and general-spiritual traditions, with prayers, meditations, and sacred texts. Rounding it out is EnrichFirst, an engagement layer of CARE Radio stations, sing-alongs, trivia, and old-time radio for the long quiet hours.

"The Sound of Healthcare" - the company's own shorthand for what it is trying to be.
The Evidence

What the trials found

Coro Health's central claim is that its programming produces measurable change. Researchers at UC Davis' Center for Mind and Brain ran a randomized, 16-week trial with assisted-living residents who had moderate to severe dementia. A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Music & Medicine reported similar effects.

Depression ↓ (UC Davis)
54%
Agitation ↓ (UC Davis)
34%
Symptom relief range
27–54%
Source: UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain randomized trial; Journal of Music & Medicine. Figures approximate as reported by Coro Health.
A non-pharmacological intervention with no side effects and a measurable drop in agitation - that is the pitch, and the data is the argument.
By The Numbers

Scale of the network

5,000+
Care communities
300+
Hospitals
1M+
Annual users
15+
Years operating
Products & Services

Three streams, one platform

Flagship · 2008

MusicFirst

Clinically proven therapeutic music with a patented Music Prescription Builder that composes individualized programs by background, condition, and goal - across wake, relax, energy, and sleep modes.

Spiritual · 2012

FaithFirst

A multi-faith library across seven traditions - prayers, meditation, sacred texts, and rituals - added after caregivers asked for spiritual support to sit beside the music.

Engagement · 2020

EnrichFirst

Entertainment programming: CARE Radio (65+ stations), sing-along karaoke, music trivia, couch concerts, old-time radio, and audiobooks for the quiet hours.

Delivery is deliberately flexible - branded mobile apps, overhead music systems, digital signage, Roku, and a documented API so partners can embed the content in their own patient-engagement platforms.

How It Works

The business behind the sound

The model

Coro Health is B2B. It sells licensed subscriptions to healthcare operators rather than to individuals, then reaches more than a million residents and patients who would never download the app themselves. The quiet genius: meet people where they already are - on the TV in the room, over the ceiling speakers, inside a platform they already use.

Who uses it

Senior living communities, skilled nursing, memory care, hospice, home health, and hospitals across the U.S. and Canada - a footprint the company puts at 5,000 to 6,000+ communities and 300+ hospitals. The end listeners are seniors, dementia residents, and recovering patients.

Why it's different

Consumer services like Spotify or Pandora were never designed for a dementia ward, and most "music therapy" apps can't clear the licensing to play the songs that work. Coro Health owns the licensing, engineers programs clinically, and pairs music with faith and engagement content. Alternatives include Music & Memory, SingFit, Linked Senior, iN2L + LifeLoop, and Eversound.

The expertise

The team blends disciplines that rarely share a room: music therapists, professional music designers, neuroscientists, and software engineers. That mix is the moat - the reason a Coro Health program is a designed artifact, not a shuffled playlist.

The Record

A timeline

2008

Founded in Austin

David Schofman and Leanne Flask launch Coro Health to bring therapeutic music to care communities.

2010

$2M Series A

The company raises $2 million to expand web-based music therapy, backed by angels including a former Walmart International CEO.

2012

FaithFirst launches

Multi-faith spiritual content joins the platform after caregiver requests.

2020

Platform partnerships

Integrations with Sentrics' Engage360 and pCare's Interactive Patient System put the content on residents' and patients' TVs.

2023

New streaming products

Expanded EnrichFirst entertainment programming and additional strategic partnerships.

2024

API expansion

A more flexible API lets partners embed therapeutic music and faith content into custom platforms.

The Founders & Team

Who's behind it

CEO David Schofman previously founded FrogTrader, a golf-technology company acquired by Callaway Golf in 2004. His path to Coro Health was personal - music's calming effect on his special-needs daughter, and stories of a hospice nurse easing a patient's pain with a favorite song.

David Schofman
Co-Founder & CEO
Leanne Flask
Co-Founder
Hillary Geisler
VP of Spirituality
Mandi LeBlanc
Lead Music Designer
Debi Cost-Finn
Head of Training & Music Licensing
Partnerships

On the room TV

Hospitals

pCare

MusicFirst and CoroFaith integrated into pCare's Interactive Patient System for hospitalized patients.

Senior Living

Sentrics

Pre-integrated into the Engage360 TV-based engagement platform for senior living communities.

Operator

Pacifica Senior Living

More than 100 Pacifica communities deploy Coro Health's music and spiritual programs.

Watch

Interviews & demos

Questions

FAQ

What does Coro Health do?

It runs a fully licensed streaming service of clinically proven therapeutic music and multi-faith spiritual content designed specifically for healthcare environments - senior living, hospice, home health, and hospitals.

Is the music therapy clinically proven?

Yes. A UC Davis randomized trial and a peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Music & Medicine found its MusicFirst programs reduced depression and agitation in dementia and long-term care residents by roughly 27-54%.

Who uses Coro Health?

Healthcare operators - 5,000+ care communities and 300+ hospitals across the U.S. and Canada - deploy it, reaching more than 1 million residents and patients each year.

What are the main products?

MusicFirst (therapeutic music with a patented Music Prescription Builder), FaithFirst/CoroFaith (multi-faith spiritual content), and EnrichFirst (entertainment and engagement programming).

Who founded Coro Health?

It was founded in 2008 by David Schofman, who serves as CEO, with co-founder Leanne Flask, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

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