When Tyler Jorgensen, M.D., a palliative care physician and assistant professor at Dell Medical School, wheels a record player into a patient’s room, he’s offering something medicine can’t prescribe: a way back to somewhere familiar.
Jorgensen and his team at Dell Seton Medical Center have been doing this since 2022 through ATX-VINyL — Audio Therapy eXperience-Vinyl for Inpatients Near the end of Life — a program that uses music to help patients and families connect during the final stages of care. The collection started at about 60 records. This spring, it grew by nearly 500, thanks to a two-week vinyl drive organized by UT Social Work’s Moritz Center for Societal Impact.
Andy Langer, the Moritz Center’s co-program director for arts and humanities, secured support from Waterloo Records and Crosley Record Players for the drive. Crosley also donated four new turntables to expand the program’s reach.
“Sometimes it’s about more than research. It’s about innovative programs at the local level,” said Dr. Elisa Borah, director of the Moritz Center for Societal Impact. “We are proud to support programs like ATX-VINyL that show what’s possible when science and medicine meet humanity — and we are all better for it.”
The new records have already made a difference. Jorgensen said his team was recently able to honor a patient’s request for Brazilian jazz, spinning Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto — including “The Girl from Ipanema.” A Rolling Stones fan got their request filled, too.
“I have truly enjoyed being able to focus more on the human experiencing the illness than the illness itself,” Jorgensen said.