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t m c » p u l s e | m a r c h 2 0 1 7 8 We Will Rock You Every surgery has a soundtrack B y A l e x a n d r a B e c k e r JACK DAWSON, M.D. "I use Spotify as my music player of choice. I do orthopedic trauma, so I'm in the OR several days a week. I like a wide variety of music, and a lot of the time I will defer to the other people in the room. As a result, what I listen to often depends on which of my residents is operating with me—luckily we have pretty similar tastes. Most of it is pretty upbeat—there is a lot of electronic music and a fair amount of indie rock. Some days we go with the '80s, and the middle of the night is a great time to lis- ten to hip-hop and rap. Very occasion- ally we have country on, and on rare occasion, we have ranged all the way from dubstep to Irish drinking songs. The main thing is, since I listen to music almost all day, every day, Jack Dawson, M.D., chief of orthopedic surgery at Ben Taub Hospital and an assistant professor of orthopedic trauma surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, shows a playlist on his phone. A hospital OR can be a somber environment—until a surgeon cranks up the music. The bold strokes of the Rolling Stones or the airy brightness of a sitar can energize any room. Inside the Texas Medical Center's operating suites, you'll hear everything from ABBA to Zeppelin, because sur- geons use music to help their teams concentrate and stay in sync. there is always a quest for new music. I accumulate new music using Spotify, which creates a weekly list of music recommended for you based on what you have been listening to. I listen to these recommended songs every week and tag songs to go into a new music playlist. If I continue to like them after several plays, they are moved into genre-specific playlists. The end result is a selection of playlists that