Music as Medicine: Jenny Chen, Tyler Jorgensen, & Theresa Allison

As you know, dear listeners, I love music. We start each podcast with a song in part to shift the frame, taking people out of their academic selves and into a more informal conversation.

Well, today’s guests love music at least as much if not more than me, and they each make a strong case for music as medicine. Jenny Chen is a palliative care fellow at Yale who regularly sings for her seriously ill patients. Look for Jenny to potentially appear on the show America’s Got Talent (no lie).

Tyler Jorgensen not only plays music for his patients, starting out with just pulling up a tune on his iPhone, he and others at UT Austin and Dell med now wheel a record player into patients rooms and play vinyl, taking patients back to the sounds and routines - think taking the record out of the sleeve, placing the needle in the groove - of younger days.  You can here Tyler and I having a great time singing together and sharing stories around his podcast My Medical Mixtape.

And Theresa Allison is a geriatrician and ethnomusicologist who studies the role of music for people with dementia. The ability to appreciate, recognize, and engage with music is preserved even until late stages of dementia, and Theresa is examining how music can be useful from the time of diagnosis, not only for the person with dementia, but their caregivers.

Many links today, including:

-Alive Inside Movie and Music and Memory movement

-Music and Creativity in Healthcare Settings - book by Hilary Moss

-Tyler Jorgensen’s article on  Bringing Music to patients at the Bedside in JGIM

-Tyler’s reflection/story comparing palliative medicine to jazz - something I arrived at independently and tell all new trainees!  This is not highly scripted orchestral music, people, it’s Jazz.

-Systematic review of music (and prognosis) in palliative care

-Review of music and dementia interventions (Theresa Allison author)

-Theresa Allison’s paper on Music Engagement in Dementia Caregiver Relationships in Gerontologist

-Jenny Chen’s YouTube channel.