Transforming Medical Education at the Mastery Skills Lab

In a rapidly shifting technological landscape, Mayo Clinic is committed to ensuring that all clinicians are ready to use the latest tools. This investment is perhaps most evident at the Center for Procedural Mastery Skills, an advanced training and procedural space outfitted with the latest in simulation and extended reality technology. Under the leadership of Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, this state-of-the-art space serves as a proving ground for clinicians across specialties.

The facility operates on a key value: Practitioners should never have to learn on actual patients. To ensure that this is the case, the lab offers learning opportunities across multiple modalities, including virtual, augmented and mixed reality, as well as physical simulators. These mixed models allow clinicians to train with patient-specific anatomical models, practice procedures repeatedly, and garner real-time feedback, all within a risk-free environment.

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“It’s all about experiential learning,” says Mark Morrey, M.D., medical director of procedural skills. “One size does not fit all, and we need to have the technology available to support all learners.” This philosophy represents a natural evolution in medical education, transcending traditional cadaveric training to embrace customizable, accessible learning opportunities.

The lab’s sophisticated collection includes endoscopy and arthroscopy simulators with haptic feedback, a Da Vinci robotics console, and an interventional radiology simulator utilizing anonymized patient images. Available around the clock, the facility serves not only medical trainees but also experienced surgeons seeking to master new techniques, as well as experts trying to make decisions about new equipment purchases and testing and modifying medical technologies.

The ability to learn something through an approach where you get all the input from your eyes and ears is so much better than just text on a page.

— Rabih Tawk, M.D.

There’s even a vending machine that dispenses practice tools for medical training. These include 3D-printed models of airways and blood vessels, practice kits for setting broken bones, and tiny instruments for detailed procedures. Each tool comes with a QR code that links to step-by-step videos of expert doctors demonstrating the proper techniques. This allows users to practice and learn at any time, day or night.

The team overseeing the lab even has systems to track learner progress and tool use, to monitor individual training progress and understand how the equipment is being used. “I get weekly updates on all 70 residents in the orthopedic training program,” says Dr. Morrey. “We can track their proficiencies against gold standards, and this is changing how we measure success in medical training.”

In addition to managing the lab and its resources, the team is studying how these technologies impact hands-on medical care, including research on how augmented reality and virtual reality training translate to procedural skills.

Neurosurgeon Rabih Tawk, M.D., believes that this is the new face of medical training. “Trainees prefer to see procedures in a video, to be active participants in these simulations and real-life surgeries. The ability to learn something through an approach where you get all the input from your eyes and ears is so much better than just text on a page.”

This innovative approach positions Mayo Clinic at the forefront of medical education, preparing the next generation of physicians for an increasingly technological future.

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The diagnosis also explained some of the frustrations I experienced as a student in a research lab. The bright lights overhead often gnawed at my nerves. One pipette that makes a repetitive piercing sound (other students affectionately call it “The Beeper”) made me want to run out of the room.

With the diagnosis came grief and anger too. How had it taken so many years to get a diagnosis?

I had always been a good student and a nondisruptive kid. For years, my parents and teachers had addressed my anxieties but overlooked the source of the problem, as many do with well-behaved female children. In fact, 80% of girls with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remain undiagnosed at age 18, likely because they mask their symptoms instead of acting out as many boys do.

Regardless of when the diagnosis comes, people with ASD can feel as though they are “living as a square in a circle world,” as a therapist described it to me.

Taking steps to adapt

When I finally received a diagnosis, I was empowered to take steps to adapt. As a Ph.D. student in the Clinical and Translational Sciences track at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, I needed to find the right equipment that would enable me to work comfortably in a laboratory. I reached out to Mayo Clinic’s Office of Wellness and Academic Support — Disability Access Services, which assists Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science students who have a need for any type of disability accommodation. The office can help address accessibility issues in classrooms and lab spaces.

Within the office, a disability resource specialist met with me, provided information and offered several suggestions. I made arrangements to take periodic breaks from the lab to mitigate the effect of the bright, overhead lights. I learned about headphones I now wear at work to block out the sound of the dreaded Beeper. Among the suggested accommodations, I had the opportunity to choose those that would be helpful. Some of them, like extra time for exams, I don’t feel I need.

A new scientific goal

Importantly, my diagnosis steered my research focus. My scientific goal is to enable earlier diagnosis for ASD. I aim to develop an objective diagnostic test for autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders. I hope to help other children and families receive a diagnosis as early as possible so they can seek supportive care and adaptive equipment to improve their lives.

As I chose a dissertation advisor, I was excited to join the laboratory of reproductive immunologist Sylvie Girard, Ph.D., in the Department of Immunology. Dr. Girard valued my life experiences and my desire to identify a practical biomarker that could be used in the clinic to identify infants at high risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders.

We decided on the placenta as a place to begin looking for biomarkers. Pregnancy always involves inflammation, but too much inflammation can be detrimental to a growing fetus. The placenta, which is typically discarded after a baby is born, can serve as a proxy for the biological influences on childhood development, providing a window into the prenatal environment and fetal exposures.

At Mayo Clinic, we have the opportunity to study donated placental tissue samples for inflammatory markers. In addition, we can obtain consent from mothers to review data from their children’s medical charts as the children grow up. We then can correlate findings in the placenta with physicians’ clinical notes from routine pediatric appointments, observing children’s delays in hitting developmental milestones, up to age 24 months. The laboratory and clinical information may help us identify key molecules that could serve as early indicators of ASD risk.

Demystifying a diagnosis

For me, having information about my own ASD has been liberating and inspiring. However, as one ASD expert has explained about the variety of experiences that exist on the spectrum, “When you meet one person with autism — you’ve met one person with autism.” Often, when I disclose my diagnosis to others, a common response is, “You seem fine. Your autism must be very mild.” But autism can present challenges that others can’t see. My autism affects my life daily.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to modify my work environment so I can bring my expertise and enthusiasm to the important issue of neurodiversity. Through honest conversations and my laboratory research, I hope to continue demystifying ASD.

This article was originally published in Mayo Clinic News Network.

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"When I first learned that Mayo Clinic was advancing the larynx transplant, I thought the procedure is something that will be exciting for Mayo to be able to do for patients — something I couldn't even fathom," she says. "I knew I wanted to be fully involved in advancing the research in this area."

In addition to her medical degree, Hardy is pursuing a master's degree at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Her research project is looking at ways to make the post-laryngeal transplant regimen easier for patients. Because receiving a transplant requires lifelong immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the new organ, Hardy is investigating removing the cells of a laryngeal transplant model, looking for approaches that reduce the immune response and, hopefully, the need for medication.

"If we can reduce the immune response or the need for immunosuppression, that could make laryngeal transplant available to more patients and improve their quality of life," she says. 

Voice as a Hobby and a Scientific Study

Finding joy in singing with others, Hardy participated in a choir in college, and when she came to medical school at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, she performed with a community-based barbershop group.

"I've always loved anything related to the voice," she says. "When I came to medical school, I'd never thought of incorporating that into my career until I began learning about laryngology and ear nose and throat surgery and realized how those specialties matched that specific interest."

As a medical student also interested in conducting biomedical research, her interest in the intersection of that work and singing would put her at the cutting edge of a brand-new field of study: regenerative sciences. During her first year of medical school, as she sought opportunities to work in a lab, she found David Lott, M.D., chair of the Department of Otolaryngology (ENT) - Head and Neck Surgery/Audiology at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. His research applies the approaches of regenerative medicine to restoring the voices of patients who have had a laryngectomy — a surgery to remove the voice box.

Regenerative medicine is an approach that shifts the focus from treating disease to rebuilding health by repairing, replacing or restoring damaged tissues, cells or organs. As director of the Head and Neck Regenerative Medicine Lab at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Lott has focused on establishing techniques to regenerate the voice box and restore its abilities after diseases or traumas.

"We're training the next generation of scientists and clinicians who are going to be pushing the field ahead."

— David Lott, M.D.

His work led to the first laryngeal transplant at Mayo Clinic — actually replacing a damaged voice box with all its necessary functions. People whose voice box was damaged from injury, cancer or the residual effects of radiation treatment — as many as 60,000 people in the U.S. — can neither speak with their natural voices nor breathe through their noses. Mayo Clinic is in the process of establishing the first ongoing larynx transplant program in the country. Dr. Lott and colleagues are advancing the transplant procedure and also exploring other regenerative approaches to larynx restoration, including the use of stem cells and growth factors to help grow functional tissue.

As Hardy learned about the lab's various approaches to laryngeal transplant and the potential to restore function through regenerative sciences, she knew she wanted to contribute to research to further options for voice-impaired patients.

The field of regenerative medicine is so new that few people are versed in its principles and techniques. Mayo Clinic is at the forefront of training the workforce in this emerging field, offering doctoral and postgraduate training in regenerative sciences through the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. Hardy is an example of the future physician-scientists that Mayo is training to deliver the newest regenerative technologies and carry on the work for the next generation.

"Education plays a key role, complementing the research and practice components, in the laryngeal transplant," says Dr. Lott. The entire staff involved in a transplant rehearsed and trained for it, including nurses who underwent specialized in-service training and online courses. Training for the laryngeal transplant provided a unique learning opportunity for residents at Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, including head and neck surgical resident Payam Entezami, M.D., who assisted the surgical team. 

To address patient needs following the transplant, Hardy found she could amplify her medical school training by pausing it to pursue a master's degree in regenerative sciences, attending classes about its innovative approaches and conducting research in Dr. Lott's lab. She is among Mayo's first students in the program and says she is impressed by the topics involved — stem cells, tissue engineering, 3D bioprinting — and the vast areas of medicine it touches.

"There are so many different approaches within regenerative medicine and ways to apply it to specific clinical areas of interest," she says.

"We’re educating a specialized clinical workforce of the future, who will have the understanding to manifest the potential held within regenerative medicine," says Saranya Wyles, M.D., Ph.D., a dermatologist and associate director of education at Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics. "Regenerative technologies, focused on restoring form and function, have the potential to transform standard of care. The approach begets a new set of skills."

Dr. Lott is enthusiastic that Hardy's research will contribute to the growing information about laryngeal transplant. He's also emphatic about the importance of the various educational opportunities emerging in regenerative medicine.

"We're training the next generation of scientists and clinicians who are going to be pushing the field ahead," he says. "It's one thing to be able to develop regenerative approaches for patients now. It's a whole other to establish the experts in this new field who can help patients for years and years down the road."

This article was originally published in Mayo Clinic News Network.

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REWAN ABDELWAHAB understood the many barriers to healthcare facing underserved communities. Born in Egypt, Rewan emigrated to the U.S. as a child and witnessed the lack of access to insurance and the difficulty navigating the U.S. health system faced by immigrant and low-income communities.

“I want to go into medicine as an advocate, to help provide treatment and management of care with a nuanced understanding and curiosity of a patient’s background and how care might be accommodated to that background,” Rewan says.

Once at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, Rewan quickly found herself advocating for cultural and religious consideration not only for patients, but also for her fellow students and medical professionals across the country.

As a hijab-observing Muslim, Rewan discovered that religious practices haven’t always been considered in creating guidelines for sterile procedures and clothing in operating rooms. Motivated by a personal experience during a surgical observation and empowered by faculty mentors, she submitted an informative guide to the Journal of the American College of Surgeons focusing on adjusting operating room protocols to accommodate hijabs, natural hair, tichels, Sikh head coverings known as dastars, and beards, among others.

The impact of her advocacy was swift and far-reaching. Shortly after publishing the guide, the journal announced updated national guidelines for religious head coverings. At Mayo Clinic, the departments of Surgery and Anesthesiology have instituted staff training and new protocols for scrubbing in that consider the diverse religious and cultural backgrounds of all staff, including private wash areas and sterile head coverings.

“It was the support and resources of Mayo that allowed us to make a really substantial and tangible change in medical practice,” Rewan says. “Because of Mayo’s tailored aspect of education, I was able to dedicate time to push this initiative forward.”

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IT WAS IN HIGH SCHOOL that Ewoma Ogbaudu experienced the tragic spark that inspired his journey to medicine.

After emigrating from Nigeria when Ewoma was 3, his family grappled with various struggles in the United States, including financial challenges. These hardships shaped him, driving Ewoma to push himself academically throughout childhood, ultimately finishing as the first Black valedictorian of his Surprise, Arizona, high school.

Then, Ewoma’s young cousin died prematurely due to complications from a congenital heart defect. Even then, Ewoma knew the socioeconomic disparities their family faced contributed to the level of care his cousin received.

This formative experience and many more like it — from volunteering with community organizations in disadvantaged areas of New York City as an undergraduate at Columbia, to sharing tears with a Black mother and her son during a rotation as they processed the realities of her breast cancer diagnosis — have reinforced Ewoma’s decision to pursue medicine. Moreover, they continue to inspire him as he begins his master’s in business administration at Stanford this year, with the ultimate hope of leveraging business principles as a physician leader to improve access to healthcare.

He explains that none of this would be possible without the generous scholarship support he received from Mayo Clinic benefactors.

“I didn’t see it as just an investment in me and in my future, but I also saw it as a really strong investment in the marginalized and underserved communities that I want to impact in my future as a physician,” he says.

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GORDON XIE found his calling to medicine at a young age. While he was in high school, a family member was hospitalized with a mysterious medical condition. 

“When my family was at the hospital, there were moments where things could go one way or another,” Gordon says. “Everybody’s scared, and seeing the doctors bring out the best side of us made me really want to be able to do that for somebody else.”

Gordon believes that medicine is “the intersection of science and service,” and he sees his role as that of a teacher, informing and guiding patients and their families in times of crisis.

Spurred by his personal experience, Gordon volunteered with the homeless, youth and veteran populations near Ohio State University, further cementing his commitment to serving the most vulnerable. It also has led him to an interest in critical care medicine, a career path, he explains, that wouldn’t have been an option without the scholarship he received from Mayo Clinic benefactors.

“If I graduated with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, I would feel pressure to choose a career path to easily pay back my loans,” Gordon says. “This scholarship has removed money from the equation and empowered me to choose the field of medicine I am most passionate about.”

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Yonghun overcame his despair — and began following a new path. He had always had an interest in medicine, even taking pre-med courses while pursuing his degree in computer science at Stanford University. The death of his grandfather confirmed that he wanted to become a physician.

"That feeling of helplessness made me want to learn more about disease so I can empower people around me with that knowledge and learn how to better transition them through difficult times," he says.

Inspired by Passion, Propelled by His Scholarship

Yonghun is now a student at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. A first-generation immigrant from a low-income household, Yonghun acknowledges that scholarships made it possible for him to pursue this direction in his career. “I feel truly fortunate to be progressing through my education without the weight of debt influencing my career decisions,” he says.

With his scholarship giving him the freedom to follow his passions, he has focused on providing health care to people sleeping in parks and living in their vehicles. Yonghun says that as a child of immigrants, he relates to many of the struggles of people facing homelessness. As a child, he often interpreted at his parents' medical appointments, rarely received dental care because of the cost, and witnessed firsthand the devastating effects of addiction and the stigma surrounding mental illness in his community.

Today, Yonghun volunteers at The Landing day center, a nonprofit helping those facing homelessness in Rochester, Minnesota. He works alongside Casey Caldwell, M.D., a retired Mayo Clinic physician, to bandage wounds, listen to patients’ concerns about symptoms, and deliver other basic care. 

"Those facing homelessness deserve the same kind of care and concern that any other patient would receive," Yonghun says. "Their value should not be tied to if they can afford a home."

Reaching the Unseen and Underserved 

Yonghun feels compelled to not just care for unseen populations but also to be a voice for them in the broader medical community. As a student, Yonghun is achieving this by helping create opportunities for his classmates to care for those who are often underserved in the community and health care. 

When Jim Withers, M.D., the founder of the Street Medicine Institute, spoke at Mayo Clinic, he inspired Yonghun’s classmate Jeffrey Woods to start a similar program in Rochester. “When I heard Dr. Withers speak about street medicine, it was the most inspired and moved I’d been since starting medical school,” says Jeffrey.  “Building relationships with the community to help, heal and comfort those shunned by society is, for me, the pure spirit of medicine. Getting Mayo Clinic medical students and leadership on board was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done — a testament to the kind of people who work and learn here.”

Knowing about Yonghun's connection to The Landing day center, Jeff reached out to him, and Yonghun eagerly agreed to get involved.

First, they created a selective course focused on street medicine that attracted 28 medical students in its first year. They learned from community experts and participated in outreach efforts, such as creating warming kits and connecting with individuals to learn more about their needs. “We went under bridges and into the woods,” says Yonghun. “I think it’s important for us to experience the unconventional environments where people who don’t have reliable shelter live.”

The students are hoping to return to those unconventional spaces soon. They are creating a volunteer opportunity for students to provide basic medical care to people experiencing homelessness and to help connect them to resources for more complex care.

Fueling the Next Generation of Change-Makers 

By making it possible for committed, values-driven students like Yonghun to attend medical school, scholarships help drive big changes in health care for decades to come. What Yonghun is doing today for underserved communities is just a start. 

"I have this wish to create change on a large scale," Yonghun says. "I don't want to sit idle. I want to be an active part in driving changes that solve problems and make health care better for everyone, especially those who are often unheard and unseen." 

Make a gift now to inspire students like Yonghun to pursue their dream of a better future for health care.  

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Claudia Manriquez Roman graduated with her Ph.D. in virology and gene therapy and regenerative sciences from Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in May 2023, after working under mentor Saad Kenderian, M.B., Ch.B., a hematologist and oncologist who specializes in immunology and immunotherapies. Her thesis project was primarily centered on the development and optimization of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy, a cutting-edge immunotherapy that modifies a patient’s own immune system to target and destroy cancer cells. Her key focus was understanding the activation of CAR-T cells when encountering tumor cells and mitigating CAR-T cell death.

“It’s important for me to do meaningful work that is actually helping people who have cancer,” Dr. Manriquez Roman says.

Dr. Manriquez Roman’s studies revealed significant findings. She discovered that reducing the presence of a specific cytokine, an inflammatory molecule that’s present in patients who experience CAR-T cell-associated toxicities, resulted in CAR-T cells that are less prone to cell death. She also found similar results in depleting a specific receptor involved in the pathway that leads to cell death. Her research has opened the door to explore new approaches to improve the therapeutic efficacy of CAR-T cells in both blood cancers and solid tumors.

“These results provide opportunities to use secondary strategies for patients who have already relapsed or whose therapies are not working for them,” Dr. Manriquez Roman says. “The results we presented in my thesis lay the foundation in how we can better understand and modify these CAR-T cells so they can work better for patients.”

Dr. Manriquez Roman is now a scientist in the Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics at Mayo Clinic, with the goal of fully translating CAR-T cell products into therapies that can be tested in clinical trials and eventually become new treatments for patients.

“Students and researchers like Claudia are essential,” says Dr. Kenderian. “These skills of engineering, making and testing CAR-T cells from the lab to clinical trials are hard to acquire. This is how we train the next generation of physicians, scientists and physician-scientists so we can continue to make novel therapies for patients.”

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To understand Jay Alix’s desire to give back to education, it’s important to go back to the unlikely time and place where he began his own learning experience — at his family’s Shell service station nestled in Waterbury, Connecticut.

From the time his mother stitched Jay his very own service station uniform at age 4, Jay received business lessons that laid the foundation for everything that would come in his career — and eventually his transformational gift to Mayo Clinic that the organization recognizes by naming the medical school Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine.

The Shell service station was more than just pumps — it was a hub of activity harkening back to an earlier time when stations provided full services, from repair to towing, and worked hard to cultivate a regular clientele by solving the customers’ problems.

One of the ways his parents encouraged him to work harder in grammar school was by rewarding Jay with additional hours at the station. He learned all manner of business and life lessons from his father, the mechanics and car dealers, the customers and their families, and more who came through the doors weekly, for years.

At 18, Jay became the youngest person in the Shell dealer training organization to be certified as a Shell dealer. It was a result of what he’d learned: developing expertise, putting customers’ needs first and relying on a team of employees with specialized skills. Jay and his father took pride in Shell’s motto — “Service Is Our Business.”

But one thing Jay wasn’t sure about was what was next in his life. He loved the service station. His vision revolved around a regional network of stations — maybe bigger. He went to the local junior college for an associate degree in marketing and management to further those goals.

“I was happy. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go to a university, but my dad said, ‘Why don’t you try it? You can always come back if it doesn’t work out,’” Jay says. “There were two parts to his advice — first, there were no expectations. Second, I could always come back to what I knew and loved. It was encouragement without expectation.”

Still, that didn’t mean Jay was primed or successful in everything that came next. It was perseverance and unwavering values that drove him to eventually become an innovator so visionary that a whole industry sprang up from his work of solving corporate problems and turning around distressed companies.

An Ideal Model

Jay’s parents and the community of regular customers who watched him grow up encouraged him to broaden his horizon. Jay entered the only school he applied to at the time — the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He went on to Rutgers University, where he earned an MBA and then passed the CPA exam. At the age of 25, just a few years out of college, he founded his own business, Jay Alix, CPA PC, a corporate turnaround firm.

Success followed. The firm evolved into Jay Alix & Associates, and at 31, he turned around Phoenix Steel Corp., the oldest steel company in the country. Soon more national and international brands came calling — Unisys, National Car Rental, Zenith, DirecTV, Ryder Trucks and countless others. His firm eventually became AlixPartners in 2002, and Jay retired as the largest shareholder in 2006.

While growing his own business over 25 years, Jay always sought out mentorship from entrepreneurs, business leaders and academics. In particular, he took a strong interest in and studied Mayo Clinic and other organizations started by a single person or family that later grew into top-flight businesses in different fields, such as finance, law, health care and more.

“I became fascinated in my continuing business education with Mayo Clinic’s model of care, which had thrived for more than 150 years,” Jay says. “It was impactful for me to see the health care analogies and metaphors as I built the architecture of my ‘corporate health care’ businesses.”

Studying Mayo Clinic and modeling parts of his company after it in the 1980s, Jay became even more interested in Mayo Clinic’s success following his first patient care experience in the 1990s.

“In 1994, I went to Mayo Clinic for my first executive physical. I was so impressed and so taken by it,” Jay says. “Now, I go many times a year, not because of a health issue, but because of the people.”

A Mayo-Minded Focus

Watching Mayo Clinic, and searching for his main philanthropic mission, Jay saw an opportunity to make a significant impact at Mayo through conversations with former President and CEO John H. Noseworthy, M.D.

Jay’s advising role and gifts grew over many years, supporting the Mayo Clinic Model of Care, which features unhurried exams and focuses on the highest-quality patient care with comprehensive and efficient evaluation, assessment and treatment. But there was another need — addressing the prohibitive costs young people must bear to receive a medical education.

“We need to ensure more people can choose to go to medical school. We need to make a medical education more affordable for people,” Jay says. “We must lower the cost burden to enter the profession so the best and brightest will choose to become doctors.”

To do so, Jay made a transformational gift to Mayo Clinic of $200 million. He also deepened his time commitment to Mayo Clinic to ensure its long-term success by joining the Board of Trustees. In recognition of the gift, Mayo Clinic named its medical school Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine and recognizes Jay as a Philanthropic Partner.

“It couldn’t be a more satisfying, gratifying, enriching part of my life,” Jay says. “Mayo Clinic’s unique approach to medical care, education and research changes the outcome for patients and provides hope. This was the inspiration for my own successful business model, and if I can pay that forward and help Mayo Clinic by using my time, abilities and resources, that’s my way to impact millions of lives as part of the Mayo team.”

And that’s a big part of what drew him to supporting education — solving a pressing problem and the need for more doctors by providing a large-scale solution to help educate the next generation of physicians.

Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine is a top 10-ranked national medical school, currently growing to graduate 100 doctors each year by 2021. About one-third of those graduates go on to join Mayo Clinic’s staff, while the rest use the knowledge received through training at Mayo Clinic to enhance other medical practices.

“The next generation of Mayo Clinic’s leaders is being trained now,” Jay says. “They will perpetuate the Mayo Clinic Model of Care and will fulfill the mission to meet the needs of patients first.”

Impacting Millions, One at a Time

Jay’s philosophy is refreshingly simple.

“I’ve become convinced that the nature and quality of our lives will be determined by the nature and the quality of our relationships,” Jay says. “So, if we form positive, productive relationships with high-quality, high-integrity people, really good human beings, we will likely have a high-quality positive life and we, too, will help them improve the quality of their lives.”

That’s what he sees in the eyes of all the students he meets at Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. Jay mentions that one of his greatest joys and a source of inspiration is to hear the students’ own stories of overcoming adversity, because it reminds him of the vital role education played in his own life.

“One of the lessons I’ve learned — the pursuit of happiness isn’t a job; it isn’t climbing a career ladder,” Jay says. “It’s about being productive, intellectually honest and doing things for the greater good. That gives us a stronger sense of self-esteem and self-worth, and purpose, and that’s where we find real satisfaction and ultimate happiness.”

And, when people of integrity have the time and space to think clearly and logically as well as humanistically about issues at hand, Jay believes that’s when even the biggest problems can be solved.

A System of Success

For Jay, it starts with a No. 2 pencil and 3-by-5 notecards and a time management system he learned from an early mentor about 40 years ago.

“The cards are my priority-setting and time management system. It helps clear my mind. The idea is, people make a big effort around a to-do list, but you can only do one thing, one task at a time. Most important achievements are made up of big, complex projects and solving major problems. But if you break complex things down to one item at a time on an index card, it focuses all your attention, and in a physical way it can be accomplished or solved quickly.

“Life is lived in the present, from moment to moment, from task to task. The past is gone, the future is not yet here. By being as present as possible, you can listen carefully and become a positive influence for solving problems.”

Opportunity Abounds

Jay’s list of people he admires at Mayo Clinic runs so long that he’s afraid of missing someone, but he acknowledges his friendship with Dr. Noseworthy and Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and CEO, as well as Mayo Clinic’s internal leadership board and department chairs.

In appreciation, he wanted to do something beyond his $200 million gift that would be innovative for Mayo Clinic’s future leaders. He worked with Dr. Noseworthy, who was president and CEO from 2009 through 2018 — a period of unprecedented growth as well as challenges — to create an endowment.

“One of the things I witnessed in the clinic from leadership is that there are always more great ideas than there are funds for,” Jay says. “By creating an endowed position supporting the CEO this year, it’ll produce a source of funding so President and CEO Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., and all future CEOs can bring about bright ideas that will advance Mayo Clinic as a global institution.”

No matter what the future holds, Jay believes Mayo Clinic’s mission will remain paramount because of the personal commitment and individual dedication of Mayo Clinic’s staff.

“It’s a joy to collaboratively work with Mayo people. They are dedicated, smart, hardworking people; they have personal missions to help heal and cure the world,” Jay says. “When I see people at Mayo Clinic working together, collaborating to discover a solution to a patient’s problem because they’re sick or hurting and they’re healed and they feel better, that’s very inspiring.”

And it’s one thing that won’t ever change.

“Mayo Clinic keeps its eye on what makes it special — patient encounters. Each individual episode of care makes Mayo Clinic the exceptional place it is every day,” Jay says. “The world is changing rapidly, and that won’t stop. Mayo Clinic will continue to evolve and lead the charge of the change in health care. Mayo Clinic will continue to influence the practice of medicine through doctors, scientists, researchers, students, staff.”

A Joyful Time

There are opportunities for milestones ahead in Jay’s own life, including several he’s looking forward to with his partner, Una Jackman. He’s taking it all in stride, one day at a time.

“It brings me joy to think that I’ll be a grandparent,” he says, smiling.

Is one of Jay’s or Una’s six children between them expecting a baby?

“Well, not yet,” he chuckles. “But our kids will definitely be reading this.”

Still smiling, he thinks about their impact in his own life.

“Watching them as young adults as they take on life’s challenges makes me so proud. It’s joyful to see their lives continue to unfold as they grow and prosper.”

And with that, Jay reflects on all of his experiences, and how bright the future is to come.

“It’s meaningful and purposeful to see my own life in context, with the abilities and opportunities I was given, and to be able to fulfill the legacy of sacrifices my parents and grandparents made, by making a gift to help students work for the greatest good and help Mayo Clinic,” Jay says.

“And now I see it continuing far into my family’s future because in the end, it’s about how we help each other, and how we help humankind — in all ways.”

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The post How a Love for Learning Inspired an Investment in Physicians of the Future appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

The farmhouse — known as Ashwood Farm — was homesteaded in 1862 and purchased by Mike’s ancestors in 1868. It most recently belonged to Mike’s uncle Mitch. When Mitch died in 2011, Mike and Tami purchased the farm and started sorting through family memories tucked away in closets and drawers throughout the house. Fading and frail, the volumes of letters they found from Mike’s mom, Jeanne Hoffman, detail joy, sorrow, adventure and a life intertwined with Mayo Clinic.

Coming to Mayo Clinic

Jeanne grew up on Ashwood Farm and lived there until she moved to Rochester, Minnesota, to attend Saint Marys School of Nursing in 1937.

"I just heard that we are going on the floor on Sunday. I don't think it's true, however, for we haven't learned enough yet," she wrote to her parents three weeks after arriving. She went on to share that Sister Cletus, the matron, commented that Jeanne and her classmates were the worst bedmakers she'd ever seen and that they had a lot to learn.

Jeanne took her training seriously and eventually gained the confidence of Sister Cletus and other instructors. According to family, Jeanne even helped care for William J. Mayo, M.D., at the Damon House where he lived near the end of his life. Jeanne's time at Saint Marys was one of great sorrow and transition for Mayo Clinic, with both Mayo brothers and Sister Joseph Dempsey, superintendent of Saint Marys Hospital, dying within months of each other.

After nursing school, Jeanne stayed at Saint Marys Hospital. "They are so busy here — usually 8 to 10 cases that can't get nurses daily — so you can see we are kept busy," she wrote. "Time off is a precious thing and hard to get."

However, Saint Marys Hospital would not be Jeanne's toughest nursing assignment.

Moving to the Military Front

Jeanne felt compelled to follow her brothers Mitch and Greg as well as her fiance, Bill Hoffman, into the military after the attack on Pearl Harbor launched the United States into World War II. A few months later, she sent her papers to the Navy, and in 1943, Ensign Jeanne Catherine Perrizo started her Navy service at a large hospital in Corona, California.

However, at the end of 1943 she wrote to her parents, "They are sending [N]avy nurses overseas now …. I don't want you to worry about this as I may never be sent out — and if and when the time comes, it doesn't pay to worry about it. I only hope I'll be big enough to take it all in my stride and do a good job."

On March 25, 1944, she arrived in Guadalcanal, part of the Solomon Islands and a battleground for many intense conflicts in the Pacific theater of the war. The fierce battles had subsided, but the dense tropical rainforest was challenging, especially for a nurse in the 1940s. "The weather isn't conducive to starched white uniforms, white shoes and least of all, rayon hose," she lamented in a letter shortly after arriving.

However, Jeanne’s most deep suffering came one evening after attending Mass on the base. A priest pulled her aside to deliver the devastating news that her brother Greg had been killed in the war. She wrote to her parents, "Just what one can say at a time like this, I don't know. Greg was everything that we could wish in a son and brother and our loss is great. God keep all of you — and give us all the courage we need to meet this tragedy."

It was amid the devastation and heartbreak of war that Jeanne's life again intersected with Mayo Clinic. An army reserve unit primarily staffed by Mayo Clinic personnel that organized a hospital in New Guinea would travel to nearby Guadalcanal where Jeanne was stationed. "It means a lot to work with those people you're used to and respect," she wrote. "It's almost a second [Mayo Clinic] here."

Returning Home

After the war, Jeanne returned home, married and continued her commitment to patients while raising a family in Blue Earth, Minnesota. She lived a few blocks from the hospital where she worked, caring for eight children during the day and patients most evenings after her husband returned from his shift at the local canning factory.

Mike says he doesn't remember his mom talking about her job, but once again, it was letters that gave him a glimpse into how she touched her patients and colleagues. "As the letters would come in after she passed away, they would talk about how extraordinary and devoted she was," he says. "She was such a kind and gentle woman, and the reaction you'd get from people she'd cared for was that they just loved her."

It was also during this time that Mayo Clinic again entered Jeanne's life when her son Joey developed a brain tumor and she returned to the familiar halls of Mayo Clinic for his care. Sadly, he passed away at age 9, but Jeanne and Bill found comfort in the compassion and care of Mayo's physicians and nurses during this difficult time.

Continuing the Legacy of Compassion

Jeanne again found comfort at Mayo Clinic when she herself was diagnosed with cancer in the mid-1970s. She battled cancer for nearly a decade before passing away in 1983. In her last moments, she was surrounded by her large family and Mayo Clinic nurses carrying on the same values she had brought to so many patients.  

Mike and Tami didn't want that to be where Jeanne's story ended. They wanted a meaningful way to recognize her legacy and ultimately supported education opportunities for nurses, including scholarships to pursue additional skills and creation of the Jeanne Perrizo Hoffman Nursing Simulation Learning Lab with a gift of $2 million to Mayo Clinic. Opened in 2022, the center is available 24/7 and allows nurses to practice skills and receive real-time feedback using state-of-the-art technology. For their generosity, Mayo Clinic recognizes the Hoffmans as Principal Benefactors.

“My mom was a wonderfully kind, humble and caring woman who was a loving gift to her family and so many others,” says Mike. “She was a member of the greatest generation whose life was all about service — service to God, country and family. She would be very pleased to see the transformative skills laboratory and how it serves others in her profession by helping them learn and grow.”

Since their gift to support nursing education, Mike and Tami continue to find ways to honor their families through their philanthropy. They made a generous $3.5 million gift to support capital projects and staff development at Mayo Clinic Health System locations near where the Hoffman family and Tami's family, the Paschkes, have lived for decades. In recognition of their continued generosity, Mayo Clinic named the breast clinic at Mayo Clinic Health System's Madison East Health Center in Mankato, Minnesota, the Hoffman Paschke Breast Clinic in 2024.

Make a gift now to help transform the future of health care through the education of tomorrow's nurses and health care leaders.

The post Mayo Clinic Nurse’s Legacy Lives on Through Letters and Student Learning appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.