Lancashire NHS Trust is extending trials of an algorithm that creates music playlists to reduce suffering. They are offering it to staff who worked in critical care during Covid to ease anxiety and stress. It will also be offered to recovering critical care patients and outpatients with chronic pain, hoping to reduce opiate prescriptions. The technology is a musical ‘drip’, playing songs to patients and monitoring their heart rates as they listen. A 90-year-old might be prescribed big band music, while a 50-year old gets Paul McCartney. An algorithm allows the software, linked to a streaming service like Spotify, to change forthcoming tracks if the prescription doesn’t appear to be working. Its artificial intelligence assesses the tempo, timbre, key, time signatures, the amount of syncopation and the lowest notes. All these factors affect the heart rate and blood pressure response to the music. A trial of Alzheimer’s patients showed promising results.