With a few clicks, he places a digital implant onto the model. With another click, the software runs an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm that pulls data from the patient’s medical scans and combines it with information about the standard shoulder replacement hardware to generate new specifications for a patient-matched implant. In 4 to 6 weeks’ time, a vendor will deliver a custom 3D-printed device designed to integrate seamlessly with the patient’s body. The goal, Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo says, is to make sure it’s perfect.

In the operating room, Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo dons a high-tech headset. During surgery, the headset projects holograms of the 3D patient model and the custom implant. With a flick of his fingers, he can adjust the image to present new views. The hologram highlights the precise anatomical landmarks detailing where Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo will position and secure the implant.

“It’s like having Superman vision,” he says. “You can see through the body’s structures and see exactly what you’ll need to do during the surgery. This level of detail allows me to complete the surgery faster than ever, and I can place the implant within millimeters and degrees of complete accuracy.”

Technologies like these — augmented, virtual and mixed realities — are revolutionizing medicine across every field from surgery to medical education. As Mayo Clinic works to transform healthcare, scenes that seem like science fiction are already unfolding at all three campuses.

Joaquin Sanchez-Sotelo, M.D., Ph.D., and Giselle Coelho, M.D., Ph.D.

Transforming Pediatric Care

Giselle Coelho, M.D., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic STR-X (simulation, telemedicine, robotics and experimental education) fellow and pediatric neurosurgeon, has leveraged this technology to address serious brain and skull malformations in infants and young children. In these cases, precision is paramount.

“Pediatric neurosurgery presents unique challenges,” explains Dr. Coelho. “These cases are relatively uncommon, and you may be faced with severe anatomical malformations. You never want the first time you do a procedure to be on an actual child.”

This is where extended reality tools become invaluable. Dr. Coelho’s team combines advanced imaging and 3D modeling technology to transform patient scans into detailed anatomical models.

These aren’t simple visual representations — they’re sophisticated surgical planning tools that clarify important details like the exact location of arteries, the precise dimensions of skull defects, and the spatial relationships between tumors and critical brain structures.

“We can simulate the full surgery before we ever enter the operating room,” Dr. Coelho explains. “The technology allows us to practice our approach, measure exactly how much bone we’ll need for reconstruction, and coordinate with other specialists like plastic surgeons.”

Even more importantly, she says that using augmented reality (AR) headsets projecting holographic images onto the physical model, they can conduct full simulations of the surgery, including nurses and operating room technicians, to ensure that every person knows exactly what to expect before the patient even enters the room.

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The impact of this approach is clear. Dr. Coelho shares an example of a complicated procedure her team conducted on a child from the Amazon region of Brazil with an encephalocele — a rare birth defect causing brain tissue to protrude through an opening in the skull. The team used AR technology to plan and demonstrate the surgical approach to the team and used a patient-specific hybrid model to plan and practice the surgery in advance.

“Traditional surgical planning might show us the general anatomy, but with these tools, we could determine the exact measurements of the defect and precisely calculate how much bone we needed to close it,” says Dr. Coelho.

For children requiring complex neurosurgery, this reduction in operating time isn’t just about efficiency. It means less time under anesthesia and potentially better outcomes. Experts say that this technology can transform not just the surgical experience, but the entire trajectory of a young patient’s life.

In the case of her patient with encephalocele, Dr. Coelho says that the procedure completely changed the child’s life, allowing her to excel in her studies and finally be able to fully engage in her community. “That’s what this is all about,” Dr. Coelho says. “We’re using technology to transform possibilities for our patients.”

Defining Realities

The term “extended reality” encompasses three emerging technologies: virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality.

Illustrations by Jason Schneider

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) technologies are fully digital simulated environments, typically accessed via an immersive headset and sometimes including haptic feedback gloves to allow for environmental interaction.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) refers to cases where digital elements are projected onto the real environment, typically using a screen interface or headset.

Mixed Reality

Mixed reality (MR) combines virtual and real elements, such as in training simulations that project virtual models over real surgical dummies to enhance the learning experience.

Virtual Care in Critical Moments

Neurosurgeon Rabih Tawk, M.D., believes that these technologies can, and should, be applied to every field. “Every surgeon is always learning,” he says. “Every patient is different, with unique needs. These simulations provide a valuable new platform for surgical planning, tailoring the approach for everyone. Why shouldn’t all surgeons plan this way?”

Dr. Tawk uses a system called Immersive Touch, consisting of virtual reality goggles and hand controllers, to plan complex aneurysm surgeries. These tools allow him to create detailed 3D visualizations of the surgery site using patient brain scans, providing clearer insights into the patient’s anatomy than could be gleaned from simply looking at static 2D angiograms. These insights, in turn, allow him to generate a precise treatment plan.

Even outside of the operating room, these tools are changing how clinicians collaborate to provide care. Neurointensivist William D. Freeman, M.D., listed a multitude of ways that virtual reality is used in his field, including the use of virtual reality to enable rapid case review and consultations with remote specialists — critical for time-sensitive stroke care.

“In some places, hospitals are even using minimally invasive robots and remote controls in collaboration with on-site care providers so surgeons can place stents in stroke patients completely remotely,” he says. “These tools provide opportunities for expert care even in locations where a clinician of the right specialty is not available on-site.”

With the advancement of 6G technology, which allows for nearly instantaneous transmission of high volumes of data, Dr. Freeman sees a rapid evolution in remote surgical collaboration. In the future, he imagines that Mayo Clinic experts will participate in “4D surgeries,” with multiple surgeons in more than one location working to care for a patient together in three-dimensional virtual space, across the fourth dimension of time.

Advancements in data transmission technology will also enable “holoportation,” allowing remote specialists to participate virtually in consultations or medical procedures via realistic 3D hologram projections. At Mayo Clinic, this could mean that a specialist in Rochester appears to be standing beside a surgical team member in Arizona or Florida, providing guidance in real time while maintaining the feel of a natural face-to-face interaction.

While this may sound like science fiction, to Dr. Freeman, it’s simply the next step in ensuring that patients get the care they need, whenever and wherever they need it.

A Powerful Pairing

Combined with other advanced technologies, such as AI, extended reality tools are propelling surgery into the next century. “These technologies complement each other perfectly,” explains Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo. “AI helps us see and understand patterns in thousands of surgeries, while extended reality lets us apply those insights with unprecedented precision.”

In practice, this partnership begins long before the first incision. AI algorithms analyze vast databases of surgical outcomes to help design patient-specific implants and suggest optimal surgical approaches based on each patient’s unique anatomy. The technology can identify subtle variations that might affect surgical success.

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In the operating room, AI technology processes and interprets imaging data from multiple sources, generating the real-time visualizations that surgeons use via their AR headsets. AI systems can also track and analyze surgical performance metrics, providing instantaneous feedback during training simulations, and allowing trainees and their teachers to track progress against established benchmarks.

These advances are particularly crucial for remote surgery, where Mayo Clinic is pioneering new approaches. Advanced AI filters act as digital stabilizers for robotic surgical systems, eliminating tiny tremors or delays that could impact precision. “These safety systems are essential,” explains Dr. Freeman. “They ensure that even if there’s a minor connectivity hiccup, the robotic system remains steady and precise.”

The Reality of Implementation

Like any emerging technology, there are practical challenges to consider — some of which can be addressed simply by changing the room’s lighting. “The system requires specific environmental conditions to work optimally,” says Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo. “Very bright operating room lights can make it difficult to see the holograms, and certain colors of surgical gloves can interfere with the system’s tracking capabilities. You need a reliable internet connection, and you have to be ready to adapt if the technology experiences issues.”

Some more traditional surgeons have expressed concerns about overreliance on technology. Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo emphasizes the importance of maintaining clinical judgment alongside technological proficiency. “You still have to have common sense and be ready to adjust if the plan doesn’t work out,” he says. “These tools enhance our capabilities, but they don’t replace the need for surgical expertise and decision-making.”

In addition, the financial barriers to adoption can be significant. For institutions in underserved areas, these costs can be prohibitive. However, Dr. Freeman points to reduced recovery times as a benefit that offsets these costs. “Preoperative planning reduces complications during surgery and shortens hospital stays,” he says. “Shortening a patient’s length of stay in the ICU by even a day saves thousands of dollars. The cost-effectiveness ratio is quite favorable. These tools are investments that pay off in better patient outcomes and lower overall costs.”

Personalizing Care Beyond Physical Boundaries

These technologies represent more than just tools — they’re part of a new frontier in personalized medicine. Through Mayo Clinic Platform, healthcare’s first true platform, solution developers are exploring vast datasets and sophisticated AI models to detect diseases earlier, optimize therapies and generate more accurate diagnoses. When combined with extended reality tools, this creates unprecedented opportunities to tailor care to each patient’s unique needs.

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But perhaps most transformative is how these technologies are breaking down barriers to accessing expert care. Dr. Sanchez-Sotelo has seen this firsthand. “In many parts of the world, patients don’t have access to surgeons with expertise in complex procedures,” he says. “Now, I can virtually step into an operating room anywhere in the world. I can guide another surgeon in real time, showing them exactly where to place instruments, helping them develop new skills. We’re not just treating today’s patient — we’re helping doctors provide better care for all their future patients.”

These technologies demonstrate that distance need not be a barrier to receiving the highest level of care, that expertise can be shared instantly across continents, and that the future of medicine is both highly technical and deeply human.

“If I’m the patient, I want that top specialist for my critical condition available immediately,” says Dr. Freeman. “These technologies make that possible. They allow us to bring Mayo’s expertise directly to patients, wherever they are, whenever they need it. That’s not just innovation — it’s transformation.”

The post Digital Dimensions appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Delfina

“Post-COVID, maternal health is the public health challenge of our time,” says Senan Ebrahim, M.D., Ph.D., the CEO of Delfina — referencing the fact that the U.S. maternal mortality rate is nearly twice as high as that of other high-income countries. Delfina is on a mission to change this.

The app the company has created enables users to monitor their physical and mental health as pregnancy progresses and alerts them to any risks. It also provides services that make the pregnancy experience smoother. For example, users can contact a doula who can answer questions about everything from prenatal vitamins to the best places to buy maternity swimwear.

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First and foremost, though, is Delfina’s commitment to protecting the health of mothers and babies. Dr. Ebrahim highlights the experience of a patient in Texas who realized — thanks to the app’s remote monitoring capabilities — that her blood pressure had shot up. She contacted her physician, who promptly sent her to the emergency room. There, it was discovered that she had developed gestational hypertension. She was induced and had a safe vaginal delivery the same day. “She and her physician both attribute that great outcome to Delfina,” Dr. Ebrahim says.

The Accelerate program was vital in ensuring the success and growth that Delfina is experiencing. “It’s not every day that a top academic institution opens its doors to a company that hasn’t even existed for a year and says, ‘Yeah, let’s help you make sure the product you’re going to put out into the world meets the very highest clinical, scientific and safety standards,’” Dr. Ebrahim says. “Mayo brought in experts to show us how to build this product in a best-in-class way that’s safe for patients. That gave us the confidence to take these models out to market.”

Delfina now envisions a future where they’re able to provide long-term support to patients, optimizing their health from before they conceive through the postpartum period. With offices in New York City, Boston, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Rochester, Minnesota, Delfina is growing — and supporting Mayo Clinic’s goal of making the area around its Rochester campus a hub for tech innovation and entrepreneurship in the Midwest.

The post Delfina appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

This commitment is seen in the industry-leading integration of automation and artificial intelligence, in major investments like Mayo Clinic Platform and Bold. Forward. Unbound., and in thousands of daily interactions between patients and their Mayo Clinic physicians and nurses.  

Patients from every state and 135 countries turned to Mayo Clinic for care last year. Their belief in the organization as the leader in healthcare was reinforced in U.S. News & World Report’s "Best Hospitals" rankings for 2025-2026, which Mayo Clinic led for the 36^th time since the rankings began.

Both Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Mayo Clinic in Arizona were members of the U.S. News Honor Roll, which evaluates hospitals across 15 specialties and 22 procedures and conditions. Mayo Clinic is the only healthcare organization with two hospitals to achieve this designation. 

Philanthropy plays a critical role in these rankings and Mayo Clinic’s transformation of healthcare. Benefactors change the lives of patients, such as those in Cancer Care Beyond Walls, Mayo Clinic’s innovative at-home chemotherapy program. 

In 2024, Mayo Clinic received a record $1.117 billion in philanthropic gifts and future commitments and has received several transformative gifts in 2025, including recent contributions to support the Mayo Clinic Berg Innovation Exchange and Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Arizona. 

Mayo Clinic again ranks No. 1 in the U.S. News state rankings for Minnesota and Arizona and continues to be the top hospital in the Jacksonville metro area. Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, has also been recognized as a Best Regional Hospital in Northwestern Wisconsin.

The post Mayo Clinic’s Commitment to Patients, Innovation Reinforced by U.S. News Rankings appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

C the Signs

A primary care physician in Britain’s National Health System, Bea Bakshi, M.D., was inspired to start C the Signs after encountering a patient in the emergency room late one night. The patient’s symptoms — which had been overlooked in earlier medical visits — turned out to be pancreatic cancer. Sadly, he died just three weeks later.

“Cancer is one of those diseases that is so time critical,” Dr. Bakshi says. She began to wonder how physicians could identify patients at risk of cancer earlier. Soon afterward, C the Signs was born.

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The company focuses on developing artificial intelligence models for different tumor types. These models analyze data in a patient’s medical record and patient-reported data, informing the patient or provider if there is evidence of cancer risk. The C the Signs algorithm then tracks the patient moving forward, monitoring if and when they do receive a cancer diagnosis. Known in the tech industry as a “closed-loop learning approach,” this method helps C the Signs refine their models.

The company’s time in the Accelerate program provided a further degree of refinement, with the C the Signs team digging into Mayo Clinic’s data to conduct retrospective testing. “We actually had the opportunity to see if we could intercept cancers earlier than the time and date of the diagnosis by physicians at Mayo,” Dr. Bakshi explains. Her team examined data related to the five types of cancer with the highest mortality rates in the U.S. — breast, colorectal, lung, prostate and pancreatic cancer — and found they were able to detect cancer up to five years earlier in 26% of patients. “That was phenomenal for us, and a really exciting research opportunity that we’re planning to publish,” Dr. Bakshi says.

After its stint in Accelerate, C the Signs was chosen to participate in the White House CancerX Accelerator, part of an initiative by the U.S. government to reduce cancer mortality by at least 50% over the next 25 years. Dr. Bakshi’s team is also preparing to launch a prospective study in partnership with Mayo Clinic.

“We’ve detected 50,000 patients with cancer in the UK. In five years’ time, I want to be talking about the number of patient lives we’ve saved in the United States,” Dr. Bakshi says. “That’s what good looks like for us.”

The post C the Signs appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Luminare

Luminare sparked excitement among the Accelerate team because it was taking an approach to sepsis — the No. 1 cause of patient death in hospitals — that no one had seen before. Instead of following the conventional pathway of creating an AI model that can predict sepsis, Luminare was examining how it could improve workflow for hospitals. Better workflow, the team found, will naturally lead to improved sepsis detection and more timely treatments for patients.

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After successfully implementing their model at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center — which was able to decrease sepsis mortality by 18.7% and shorten the length of ICU stays by 22.5% — and several other hospitals, the Luminare team came to Mayo Clinic to test and strengthen their workflow system using Mayo Clinic Platform’s dataset.

“Without going through Accelerate, I don’t think our company would have gotten to where we are today,” says CEO Sarma Velamuri, M.D.

Dr. Velamuri looks forward to enhancing and expanding Luminare’s digital tool and bringing it to market in the near future, thanks to the partnership of the Accelerate team and the boost Luminare has received as one of the first participants in Mayo Clinic Platform’s Solutions Studio (which has provided additional development and validation for Luminare’s digital tool).

“Our top goal is expansion in the U.S. healthcare system, and then internationally,” Dr. Velamuri says. “We want to be the leading player in sepsis and set the benchmarks for care. We want to say, ‘Look, here’s what good sepsis care for your loved ones looks like.’ And all so we can get them back home where they belong.”

The post Luminare appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Three times per year, a group of hand-selected startups enter the 30-week program. Participants are given access to the deep, high-quality data available through Mayo Clinic Platform. With data access, they can build and test their algorithms and begin to integrate them into real-world healthcare settings. The Accelerate team also assembles a group of expert advisors for each startup and pairs each company with a Mayo Clinic mentor — typically a clinician in the branch of medicine the company focuses on. Through research and collaboration, startups gain firsthand insights into how their products will work in the clinical space.

We want to work with startups because we speak their language. We can really focus in on them and help them access the resources we have. We’re empowering them to bring their products to clinicians and patients.

— Jamie Sundsbak, senior manager of Accelerate

Graduates of Accelerate are already transforming the healthcare world, raising around $145 million as of February 2025 in the drive to bring their products to market. And most importantly, they are producing impactful new solutions for patients everywhere.

One company, C the Signs, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to scan a patient's electronic health record and predict cancer risk with a high degree of accuracy. Another, Delfina, created a pregnancy support app that has been downloaded by thousands of patients. A third, Luminare, created a screening system to improve the treatment of patients with sepsis in hospitals that was launched with considerable success at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. After using Mayo Clinic’s data to refine their platform, Luminare is aiming to bring its lifesaving product to more hospitals.

‘Foot on the Gas’

The first five weeks of Accelerate are dedicated to onboarding. During this time, “the Accelerate team starts to build a relationship with each and every individual participating in the program,” explains Jamie Sundsbak, the senior manager of Accelerate. “We want to get to know them. We want to understand what keeps them up at night and what they are hoping to accomplish.” Companies participate in Accelerate virtually, which provides valuable flexibility. Notably, nearly half of the companies that have participated so far are international.

“By week six, we want these companies to have a game plan,” Sundsbak says. “That’s when we give them access to our cloud. So leading up to that, we help them set goals. We work with them and their technical teams to kind of pre-navigate the data, and we have a comprehensive discussion about data safety and the ethics of data use. Then, the next 20 weeks is just foot on the gas.”

What does this next period look like for a young company’s leaders? For Bea Bakshi, M.D., the CEO of C the Signs, it meant digging into Mayo Clinic’s data to retrospectively test her company’s models.

“We actually had the opportunity to see if we could intercept cancers earlier than the time and date of the diagnosis by physicians at Mayo,” she explains. Her team examined data related to the five types of cancer with the highest mortality rates in the U.S. — breast, colorectal, lung, prostate and pancreatic cancer — and found that their model was effective in detecting cancer up to five years earlier in 26% of patients.

“That was phenomenal for us, and a really exciting research opportunity that we’re planning to publish,” Dr. Bakshi says.

Eureka Moments

Each company in Accelerate has the opportunity to work with Mayo Clinic’s rich data in the way that best suits their needs, just as C the Signs did.

For example, Luminare CEO Sarma Velamuri, M.D., and his team were able to begin identifying core phenotypes that make a patient more likely to develop sepsis during a hospital stay. “This was a eureka moment that happened when we were looking at the data,” Dr. Velamuri explains. “This pattern emerged, and we realized that there were common denominators to patients with sepsis. It was the first time in five years of working on sepsis full-time that I had this big ‘aha’ moment.”

Meanwhile, Delfina CEO Senan Ebrahim, M.D., Ph.D., and his team approached the data with an exploratory mindset as they considered how they could more effectively scan patients for pregnancy risks. “This data on tens of thousands of patients was more representative of the full spectrum of risk than anything we’ve seen previously,” Dr. Ebrahim says. Delfina already had high-performing predictive models for identifying patients who would benefit from care plans that prevent hypertension and gestational diabetes. With access to Mayo’s data, they were able to build models for predicting a patient’s risk of excessive gestational weight gain as well.

Keeping Up the Pace

After the 30 weeks are up and a company has “graduated” from Accelerate, its relationship with Mayo Clinic often continues. Some companies collaborate with Mayo teams to launch pilots or clinical trials, while others participate in Platform’s Solutions Studio, which helps them develop and validate their solutions and deploy them into workflows. Many of them also retain close ties with their cohort members and clinical mentors. The yearly Graduation Showcase event hosted by the Accelerate team gives companies the opportunity to present their product to Mayo Clinic at large, as well as to potential customers from Mayo Clinic Care Network and other institutions. This means that the work — and networking — doesn’t end after graduation.

“We want to work with startups because we speak their language,” Sundsbak says. “We can really focus in on them and help them access the resources we have. We’re empowering them to bring their products to clinicians and patients. We want them to leave the program feeling like it was the best possible thing they could have ever done.”

With the program attracting dynamic new cohorts multiple times each year, there are infinite opportunities for the Accelerate team to keep empowering young companies. No one is taking their foot off the gas anytime soon.

The post Fast-Tracking Cures appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

AI holds incredible promise for the future of medicine, but it takes more than just algorithms to make that promise a reality.

— Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

"AI holds incredible promise for the future of medicine, but it takes more than just algorithms to make that promise a reality,” says Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. “It requires a commitment to innovation and to the talented individuals who can turn theory into practice. By creating the Gerstner Scholars Program at Mayo Clinic, we ensure that clinicians with patient-first strategies have what they need to redefine what’s possible in healthcare."

The inaugural cohort of 10 Gerstner Scholars has already demonstrated exceptional promise, presenting high-impact projects poised to significantly advance healthcare. Their innovative proposals highlight the transformative potential of AI in medicine.

Learn more about Gerstner Philanthropies.

FIRST COHORT OF GERSTNER SCHOLARS 

Alina M. Allen, M.D. | Rochester, Minnesota
Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology

Project: Intelligent and Automated Clinical Care Pathway for Diagnosis and Referral of Patients with Liver Disease and Fibrosis 

Dr. Allen will develop and implement an automated clinical care pathway that integrates machine learning models to diagnose metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), also known as fatty liver disease, which affects 1 in 3 adults and is one of the most common causes of liver transplantation. This fully automated care pathway will identify patients at risk of MASLD, stage the severity of liver fibrosis/scarring, and trigger appropriate diagnostic imaging and hepatology referrals.

Carrie M. Carr, M.D. | Rochester, Minnesota
Department of Radiology

Project: GRACIE: Glioma Review Using AI, Clinical Notes, Imaging and Other Electronic Documents

Dr. Carr will use a large language model (LLM) to succinctly abstract data from the electronic health record to present a radiologist with a clear timeline that contains prior radiologic results, radiochemotherapy regimens, surgical procedures and pathology data for patients with primary brain tumors. By having a clear timeline leading up to the current study, radiologists will be better equipped to render higher-quality, more timely interpretation of a patient’s MRI that can be used in clinical care.

Chia-Chun Chiang, M.D. | Rochester, Minnesota
Department of Neurology 

Project: Precision Migraine Treatment: An AI-Powered Approach for Migraine Prevention

Dr. Chiang will construct and implement machine learning models that can accurately predict treatment response to commonly used migraine preventive medications based on clinical phenotypes and electronic health record data elements. Based on promising pilot studies, she will expand variables, validate models and translate models into the clinical practice.

Lauren A. Dalvin, M.D. | Rochester, Minnesota
Department of Ophthalmology 

Project: AI-Assisted Screening for Choroidal Melanoma

Choroidal melanoma is the most common adult intraocular cancer, which is fatal in up to 50% of patients. Dr. Dalvin will leverage Mayo Clinic’s robust database within the ocular oncology service to develop machine learning models that detect and triage high- and low-risk choroidal lesions to improve patient survival rates by early cancer detection.

Christopher A. Dinh, M.D. | Rochester, Minnesota
Division of Hospital Internal Medicine

Project: Implementing Predictive AI Models to Improve Hospital Patient Flow

Dr. Dinh will implement three predictive AI models into the clinical practice to improve hospital patient flow and discharge efficiency. Early identification of hospitalized patients with complex discharge needs can help focus case management resources earlier on in the hospital stay and thereby reduce hospital length of stay. An efficient hospital discharge will also improve the experience for patients and their families.

Antonio J. Forte, M.D., Ph.D. | Jacksonville, Florida
Department of Surgery

Project: Development of a RAG-LLM in Virtual Assistant for Post-Operative Surgical Care

Dr. Forte will enhance an AI virtual assistant with a retrieval augmented generation (RAG)-based LLM to provide more accurate, personalized and adaptable postoperative care support to patients and improve patient outcomes and safety.

William D. Freeman, M.D. | Jacksonville, Florida
Department of Neurosurgery 

Project: SAHVAI: Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Volumetric Artificial Intelligence

SAHVAI is an AI tool for measuring the amount of blood leaked into the spaces and folds of the brain in patients with life-threatening aneurysmal bleeding, reducing time to intervention and improving risk stratification for serious events. “Time is brain,” and SAHVAI has demonstrated significant promise in initial studies for acute stroke care. Dr. Freeman will advance this tool and enhance SAHVAI readiness for wider implementation.

Scott A. Helgeson, M.D. | Jacksonville, Florida
Division of Allergy and Pulmonary Medicine 

Project: AI Based Non-Invasive Detection of Blood Pressure Using Photoplethysmogram (PPG)

Dr. Helgeson will develop a cuffless, non-invasive AI model to accurately predict blood pressure across all ranges — from hypotension to hypertension — using PPG signals, trained with arterial line blood pressure measurements for enhanced precision and comfort in patient care.

Abhinav Khanna, M.D. | Rochester, Minnesota
Department of Urology

Project: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Personalize Early Detection and Monitoring of Kidney Cancer

A large percentage of patients with kidney cancer present with advanced stages of disease, including a subset of patients with incurable metastatic kidney cancer. Early detection is paramount to facilitate early intervention and to alter disease trajectory. Dr. Khanna will apply a novel AI algorithm to facilitate early detection of kidney tumors and personalize tumor surveillance strategies based on deep learning analysis of tumor radiomic features.

Irbaz B. Riaz, M.B.B.S., Ph.D. | Phoenix, Arizona
Division of Hematology and Oncology 

Project: Precise and Intelligent Outreach for Therapeutics and Clinical Trial Yield (PRIORITY)

Using AI, Dr. Riaz will implement an LLM-enabled chatbot to proactively inform patients of relevant new Food and Drug Administration-approved clinical trials and treatments, improving access and engagement beyond clinical visits and increasing accrual to clinical trials through targeted outreach.

The post Gerstner Scholars Program in AI Translation appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Seeing the Unseen

Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest forms of the disease, with the American Cancer Society reporting a five-year survival rate of 13% in its 2024 statistics. It’s one of the lowest survival rates of any cancer, due in large part to the challenge of identifying pancreatic cancer early. But Mayo Clinic clinician-investigators have always believed it was possible to identify pancreatic cancer at a stage before symptoms become present — significantly boosting the odds of survival.

Time after time, early screening risk programs failed to make meaningful inroads. Individual review of patient imaging files is challenging — the human eye isn’t proficient at making the diagnosis that early, causing false-positive rates to soar.

But Mayo Clinic had a differentiator. It was a deep, longitudinal dataset dating back decades that included people who had been diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer. The depth of the data meant that researchers could look back even earlier in patient records to review imaging taken 12 months or more prior to the discovery of cancer.

“The data allowed our teams to train an artificial intelligence (AI) model on that patient cohort that could pick up those early-stage pancreatic cancer cases with really high sensitivity and specificity,” says Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., who serves as medical director of the Strategy Department and medical director of Mayo Clinic’s Generative Artificial Intelligence Program. “It could do this at a very high accuracy — 97%.”

Our aspirations for AI are to impact patient outcomes.

— MATTHEW CALLSTROM, M.D., PH.D.

Dr. Callstrom says the work of Ajit Goenka, M.D.; Panos Korfiatis, Ph.D.; and Eric Williamson, M.D., and their teams showed that Mayo Clinic could determine whether a person had pancreatic cancer through applied AI at an early point in disease progression. Currently in the U.S., lung cancer causes the most cancer deaths, followed by colorectal cancer and then pancreatic cancer.

“We think we can shift the needle on that,” Dr. Callstrom says.

While discovery in medicine is challenging, translating those discoveries into clinical practice can be even more complex, according to Dr. Callstrom. This year, Mayo Clinic research scientists including Aadel Chadhuri, M.D., Ph.D.; Suresh Chari, M.D. (emeritus); Dr. Goenka; and Mark Truty, M.D., M.S., are testing the pancreatic cancer algorithm in the AI-PACED clinical trial, an area where Mayo Clinic excels. By focusing on patients at high risk for pancreatic cancer, particularly those with a family history of the disease, Mayo Clinic can evaluate new AI-driven approaches with more impact.

Mayo Clinic embeds scientists directly in clinical practice where they work alongside clinicians who understand the problems patients face and have access to the data. Together, they develop and test AI solutions in real time.

“That’s across the entire organization, and there are incredible discoveries being made all over,” he says.

FROM THERE TO HERE

Like many clinicians at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Callstrom’s background is varied and unique. He was a chemical engineering major at the University of Minnesota who stayed to do a Ph.D. in chemistry, followed by a postdoctoral opportunity at Harvard University.

From there, he began teaching chemistry at The Ohio State University. When one of his friends who was also a colleague at Ohio State was diagnosed with colon cancer, the experience deeply affected him.

“I became very motivated to try to impact patients’ lives. I went into medical school and was very fortunate to get into Mayo Medical School (now called Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine),” Dr. Callstrom says. “I’ve done all my training here, and my clinical emphasis is on treating patients with cancer.

“So, I do interventional oncology treating patients and trying to help them through a very difficult period in their life. And through the other aspects of my work in AI, we are hopefully developing cures for them.”

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In fact, Mayo Clinic has been looking at AI approaches for more than a decade, and its emergence in imaging over the most recent years dovetailed with Dr. Callstrom’s interests in figuring out how he could help the lives of as many patients as possible.

“He’s a pioneer in AI, working on machine learning back when most people weren’t thinking about that,” says Jim Rogers, CEO, Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology. “His singular focus has always been: ‘What can I do to improve care for folks?’

“There’s real courage and vision there. Because of him and others throughout the institution, Mayo now has more machine learning AI algorithms in actual practice — not just theory — than any other organization.”

ALREADY ACTIVE

Results from that early work are popping up all over Mayo Clinic, which has more than 60 AI models already deployed behind the scenes every day. This means that the solutions have been built and validated and are running automatically.

One area ripe for innovation is in cardiovascular medicine. Itzhak Zachi Attia, Ph.D.; Paul Friedman, M.D.; Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D., M.S.; and Peter Noseworthy, M.D., M.B.A., among a team of many others, are using EKG data to train various models to look for issues. Already one algorithm has been found to be effective in accurately identifying atrial fibrillation (AFib) at an early stage. Using a similar approach to the clinical trial in pancreatic cancer, the team discovered that AFib could be detected more than six months before it becomes clinically important.

“The reason that’s impactful is that once atrial fibrillation starts, clots can form in the heart, and those clots can travel to the brain and cause a stroke,” Dr. Callstrom says. “So, if you can stop that or prevent it from happening, you avoid a debilitating outcome for a patient and get them on medication early.”

Another model can diagnose patients with low ejection fraction, a form of heart failure, before symptoms are present, allowing doctors to intervene before the issue becomes critical.

“That model runs on every Mayo patient who has an EKG now,” Dr. Callstrom says. “Our cardiovascular medicine team ran a clinical trial in our health system with 20,000 patients to find out that this did have an impact on patient outcomes. We were able to measure it, and it picked up many patients with unsuspected heart failure or AFib. It was pretty amazing.”

EXPANDING THE FOUNDATION

Jim Rogers, who also serves as the senior administrator for the Generative AI Program, emphasizes that Mayo Clinic’s AI approaches align with the organization’s Bold. Forward. strategy to enhance internal care delivery while pursuing broader healthcare transformation.

The work is purposefully iterative. While each project is initially focused on a specific application or disease, Mayo’s established structure allows new learnings to be expanded to other areas by encompassing disciplines like genomics, pathology, imaging, text analysis, voice recognition and more.

The goal? Practical integration of all these elements to benefit physicians’ abilities to solve the needs of patients.

“We’re learning from every activity and with each step forward,” Jim says. “We’re not doing this out of mere curiosity — we want practical impact as quickly as possible. When a patient walks into one of our rooms, they expect us to have all the information needed to effectively treat them.”

CONNECTED CLINICIANS

AI’s impact isn’t just limited to disease identification and treatment. It’s helping physicians connect on a deeper level with patients too.

Mayo Clinic is using AI-powered ambient listening technology to transform patient encounters. Instead of clinicians typing notes during conversations — which can detract from personal interaction — the AI system captures and summarizes the discussion automatically. Then, the clinician can rapidly review and approve the notes, ensuring accuracy in the patient’s record.

We’re not doing this out of mere curiosity — we want practical impact as quickly as possible.

— JIM ROGERS, CEO, MAYO CLINIC DIGITAL PATHOLOGY

Dr. Callstrom says this innovation eliminates a difficult choice many physicians face: either document during the visit or spend extra time recording notes later in the day, hours after the appointment. With ambient AI handling documentation in the background, providers can focus entirely on patient interaction, ultimately bringing more humanity into healthcare.

A PROMISE-FILLED FUTURE

Even with all the advances, it’s what’s on the horizon that excites Dr. Callstrom the most.

Mayo Clinic is leveraging AI to analyze complex data in unprecedented ways — from genomics and digital pathology to cellular-level imaging. It’s all part of the organization’s mission in this new era to ensure the needs of the patient come first.

“Our aspirations for AI are to profoundly impact patient outcomes,” Dr. Callstrom says. “One of the things we always talk about is trying to identify disease at a state where we can intervene early. Previously, it’s been hypothetical — ‘If we had the right data, we could do this.’ It turns out with AI we can.”

The post Seeing the Unseen appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

It wasn’t the needle itself that brought Erika joy, but where the injection was occurring. Erika received treatment in 2024 in her Jacksonville, Florida, home as part of Mayo Clinic’s Cancer Care Beyond Walls program. Launched in April 2023, the program offers patients in the Jacksonville area access to care in their homes instead of the chemotherapy unit at Mayo Clinic in Florida.

“Most people would think a long injection isn’t very fun, but before, my treatment was taking a full day when you added in driving and everything else,” Erika says. “Now it’s five minutes. When it’s over, everything gets cleaned up and my nurse leaves. It’s wonderful.”

Families with Cancer Care Beyond Walls no longer must surrender entire days to in-person chemotherapy. Instead, treatment becomes integrated into their daily lives.

Erika was one of 55 Florida patients who had received infusions in their home through March 2025, a number that has continued to grow.

“Bringing cancer care straight to the patient’s home is a big step toward helping make cancer care more accessible,” says Morgan Posze, R.N., a nurse with the program. “It’s empowering for the patients and the families to not have to go through the stress that comes with having to change your whole life to be able to come to the clinic.”

Cancer frequently functions like a chronic condition, explains Roxana Dronca, M.D., who heads the program. When patients are in chemotherapy, there are regular hospital visits — and with those visits, lots of waiting. Studies have shown that after receiving a cancer diagnosis, patients can spend up to 15 hours a week traveling to receive treatment and sitting in waiting rooms.

“This program was born from Mayo Clinic’s primary value — the needs of the patient come first,” Dr. Dronca says. “It was hard to meet all our patients’ needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially patients with cancer. Mayo Clinic made care more accessible and flexible during the pandemic, but after the pandemic the needs of patients with cancer were still there.”

Erika Manternach (in black) and Kim Pineda are just two of the patients who are participating in the Cancer Care Beyond Walls program.

FREEDOM TO LIVE MORE NORMALLY

Kim Pineda has been a regular at Mayo Clinic in Florida since being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016.

She’s endured radiation, as well as challenging courses of chemotherapy — “the kind where I thought I might die, and not from the cancer.”

She went to a supportive stage for nearly a year. Then her cancer returned — this time it was in lymph nodes all along the left side of her body. That required another surgery, and from that point forward, since 2018, she’s been going to Mayo Clinic in Florida for treatment every three weeks.

That’s thousands of hours spent driving, walking from a parking spot through the clinic, and sitting and waiting. For Kim and her husband, Charlie, chemotherapy sessions kept them away for long stretches from the diner they own.

“The biggest challenge with cancer is time,” Kim says. “When you’re getting treated, your meds don’t get ordered until you’re sitting in the chair. For an hour-and-a-half infusion, you’re looking at four hours in the clinic. Even for a five-minute shot, the quickest I was ever in and out was 45 minutes.”

In 2024, in the middle of another long treatment day, Kim asked if there was any way to speed things up.

Her doctor told her there was something she might consider: Cancer Care Beyond Walls. Kim was an ideal candidate because she wasn’t experiencing any issues with her chemotherapy.

The care she received in her Jacksonville home was the same as in the clinic but took up a fraction of the time. Getting chemotherapy and working at the diner became a lot easier.

“I absolutely love it,” Kim says. “I have my little space in the closet where I store all my stuff. That’s my doctor’s office. I pull it out for them in the morning before they come.”

In addition to providing chemotherapy, Cancer Care Beyond Walls has integrated clinical trials for some patients, including Erika.

Erika had previously experienced a bad reaction to immunotherapy. Her Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center care team switched her to subcutaneous injections, rather than in a vein, believing the longer absorption period would be easier on her system.

Cancer Care Beyond Walls patients have access to Mayo Clinic care at all times.

This provided an avenue for me to take less time off work and spend more time with my family and doing the things I enjoy.

— ERIKA MANTERNACH

For example, when patients wake up in the middle of the night with a fever — which for those with cancer is a potential crisis that requires a trip to the hospital — a provider is only a push of a button away.

That button is on a tablet that Mayo Clinic provides to every Cancer Care Beyond Walls patient. When the button is pushed, a nurse in the Mayo Clinic in Florida control room appears on screen.

“We’ve worked so hard on this program’s safety and quality standards so that when we were ready to deliver it to our patients, it was a Mayo Clinic level of care,” Dr. Dronca says. “I believe that’s why our patients reacted positively to us, because they did not feel like it’s care that is detached from Mayo Clinic’s standard of excellence.”

Open image in lightbox

Open image in lightbox

A MOTHER’S MISSION

The origins of the Cancer Care Beyond Walls began with a heartbreaking loss.

In 2020, Dr. Dronca’s 6-year-old daughter Maya was diagnosed with an inoperable and incurable brain tumor known as a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG). DIPGs are an extremely rare and aggressive form of brain cancer that primarily affects children and carries a median survival time of nine months.

Maya bravely fought her cancer for 14 months. She passed away in 2021.

“It was so difficult to put her in the car and transport her when she was so sick,” Dr. Dronca recalled. “The drive was a ton more painful than any drug. For any procedure that she went to, I would have given anything to have the flexibility and the availability of those services in my home.”

After losing her daughter, Dr. Dronca was overwhelmed with grief. She wasn’t sure she could return to her roles as the chair of the Division of Hematology and Oncology and the site director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center in Florida. She feared she would see the face of the daughter she lost in every patient.

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She ultimately came back, possessing the compassion of someone who fully understood the pain families go through while fighting cancer. Treating patients with cancer was, and remains, Dr. Dronca’s life mission.

Dr. Dronca resolved that patients should be able to receive convenient, safe care in their homes whenever possible, sparing them the painful drives her family endured when Maya was sick.

“If I had access to the medications to give Maya and the labs to check her health status, I would have done this for her in my home,” Dr. Dronca says. “I kept thinking about it. If I wanted it, wouldn’t other people want it? Other mothers and caregivers and patients must feel like me.”

Jeremy Jones, M.D., is a consultant in the Division of Hematology and Oncology and the medical director of Cancer Care Beyond Walls for Mayo Clinic Platform. He has been involved with the program from the beginning. He says that it didn’t take long to appreciate just how big a difference receiving chemotherapy at home made for patients.

“I knew we were on to something when my first patient was finishing up their six months in the program,” Dr. Jones says. “When I said, ‘OK, we’re going to come back to the clinic now,’ they were like, ‘Absolutely not!’ It’s the first time I’ve ever had a patient express enthusiasm for continuing their current chemo regimen — because it was in their home.”

START TO FINISH: CHEMOTHERAPY AT HOME

Erika works as a quality assurance analyst for a trucking logistics company from her home. The Cancer Care Beyond Walls program afforded her a level of flexibility that was impossible to have with traditional care in the clinic. “The infusions are the same at home and in the clinic, but the buildup to actually receiving the treatment takes a long time,” Erika says. “They’re doing your blood work, waiting for the results of your blood work, meeting with the oncologist to clear you. “Then they place the order for the meds. Then you wait for the meds. Then they come in and they prep you.” Now, a typical treatment day for Erika might look like this:

DAY 1

8:30 a.m.

A Cancer Care Beyond Walls nurse calls to discuss how Erika is feeling. This usually lasts just a few minutes.

9:00 a.m.

A visiting nurse comes to Erika’s house to draw blood and measure vitals. This usually lasts about 30 minutes.

12:45 p.m.

In a video call with her Cancer Care Beyond Walls oncology team, they go over the results of her blood work and get the go-ahead for treatment. This usually lasts a few minutes.

DAY 2

9:30 a.m.

The refrigerated chemotherapy medications are delivered to her house by a courier.

10:00 a.m.

The visiting nurse arrives. While the medications are unpacked so they rise to room temperature, the nurse and Erika videoconference with the Cancer Care Beyond Walls team.

10:30 a.m.

Erika receives her treatment. Afterward, there is a second videoconference with the Cancer Care Beyond Walls team. Following that, the nurse cleans up and leaves. The courier returns to the house to remove all medical-related waste.

THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS

When Dr. Jones learned of Dr. Dronca’s vision for Cancer Care Beyond Walls, he says he shared her excitement for the idea. He also knew that it would not be easy to build.

“There were a lot of sleepless nights as we were developing Cancer Care Beyond Walls,” Dr. Jones says. “Tons of work went into what we have now — months of planning and thinking about every potential outcome, every potential event that could happen so that we could plan for it.”

Designing and running such an ambitious program required partnerships across the enterprise. None was more important than Mayo Clinic Platform.

“The partnership of Platform really accelerated our efforts,” Dr. Dronca says. “To set up a program like this, between us talking about it and doing the proof of concept was a few months. If you look at how healthcare moves anywhere, it would have taken two or three years to set up. But we had Platform’s support, their innovative thinking and their speed.”

To help bring the ideas to life, Platform needed a cancer care clinical operations expert. They found it in Rosanna Fahy.

At that time, Rosanna was with Memorial Sloan Kettering, where over the course of 31 years she had played a leading role in building and expanding their brick-and-mortar cancer care facilities.

For Rosanna, the opportunity to build the digital side of Cancer Care Beyond Walls — and to work with Platform leaders like John Halamka, M.D., M.S., Dwight and Dian Diercks President of Mayo Clinic Platform, and Maneesh Goyal, Platform chief operating officer — was as daunting as it was exciting. After a thorough interview process, she was offered the position of Platform’s associate vice president for Cancer Care Beyond Walls.

“Cancer is a complex disease,” Rosanna says. “For patients who are in the chemotherapy unit today, it probably takes seven or eight people in different roles who each have to do their piece in a connected way so that patients get safe, high-quality, dependable treatment.

“Now we do it so often that it looks pretty easy. But when you’re sitting in the chemotherapy chair, you’re not realizing how many things had to happen before that moment.”

Some of the key pieces were already available, Rosanna says. Mayo Clinic’s efforts to provide more remote care during the COVID-19 pandemic and the infrastructure of Advanced Care at Home were both valuable.

Since 2020, Advanced Care at Home has provided acute-level, inpatient-quality care to patients whose conditions included infections, congestive heart failure, bone marrow transplants, kidney transplants and other postsurgical needs.

Cancer Care Beyond Walls uses the same tablets and collection of technologies as Advanced Care at Home, making it possible to connect patients to a 24/7 command center.

During business hours on weekdays, when a Cancer Care Beyond Walls patient wants to speak with someone, they can push a button on their tablet and be connected to one of Mayo Clinic’s three dedicated Cancer Care Beyond Walls nurses.

On weekends, patients are connected with an Advanced Care at Home nurse. An oncology provider is on call at all times.

“My interactions with the patients are always either going to be video calls or phone calls,” says Morgan Posze, a nurse in the program. “It’s my job to create a space where the patient feels comfortable sharing their concerns and asking questions.

“I try to focus on listening to not only their medical needs but also their emotional experiences. We’re here to address anything and everything that they need.”

In addition to the foundation provided by Advanced Care at Home, Morgan represents an example of another key resource Cancer Care Beyond Walls already had in place: an exceptional clinical care staff that was committed to better meeting patients’ needs. Morgan, who had been with Mayo Clinic for almost a decade, jumped at the chance to be a part of Cancer Care Beyond Walls.

Her role is to be patients’ central point of contact with Mayo Clinic. Nurses connect patients with their entire care team, working closely with providers and schedulers to help coordinate everything from appointments to tests to medications — making sure everything lines up for each patient and their specific needs.

“The command center has a lot of the equipment that we need to make this virtual care possible,” Morgan says. “It’s really nice for us because the whole Cancer Care Beyond Walls team sits together, so it’s easy to collaborate to come up with plans and make changes. We all sit in one group where we can work together to make sure the patient is getting the best care.”

Open image in lightbox

Open image in lightbox

CREATING MORE POSSIBILITIES

In 2024, Cancer Care Beyond Walls’ impact was also felt by those Florida patients who needed to come into the Cancer Center for care.

“We are able to reach more patients because we can treat patients at phases of lower acuity in their home,” Dr. Dronca says. “This allows us to see the patients with complex conditions in the chemotherapy unit and the hospital when we need to see them.”

As Cancer Care Beyond Walls grows, one of the many beneficiaries will be patients who live in remote and underserved communities — an important step toward addressing health disparities. Benefactor support is accelerating the program’s growth by enhancing digital tools, developing community partnerships, and recruiting patient navigators and clinical staff to expand the program.

“Mayo Clinic has invested in building a digital product that would enable Cancer Care Beyond Walls’ care delivery model to be expanded, not only at Mayo Clinic but also to our Mayo Clinic Care Network partners,” Rosanna says. “Platform is building digital solutions that help our own practice, and we could ultimately take these same solutions and make them commercially available.”

Mayo Clinic is working to make at-home cancer care widely available. These efforts received a significant boost in 2024 with a generous philanthropic commitment from Stephen M. and Barbara J. Slaggie. In addition to other locations, the Slaggies are helping expand Cancer Care Beyond Walls to Mayo Clinic partners.

“We were excited when we learned about Mayo Clinic’s vision for making world-class cancer care available in more patients’ homes,” says Stephen Slaggie, who is a cancer survivor himself. “Not having to regularly upend your life every time you receive treatment makes it less overwhelming when you are facing cancer.”

‘THE PERFECT FIT’

For Erika Manternach, 2024 was also the year that Mayo Clinic doctors discovered she had a lymph node that was almost entirely encased with metastatic melanoma. She had initially been diagnosed with cancer in 2021 but had been put on a surveillance program of PET scans, MRIs and skin checks because the cancer seemed stable.

Tons of work went into what we have now — months of planning and thinking about every potential outcome, every potential event that could happen so that we could plan for it.

— JEREMY JONES, M.D.

After Erika underwent lymphadenectomy surgery to remove several cancer-containing lymph nodes and others at high risk, she was recommended to participate in Cancer Care Beyond Walls. Erika’s first two chemotherapy sessions were at Mayo Clinic in Florida before she began the first of 12 at-home sessions, per the structure of the program. To reduce the risk of infusion reactions in the home, all patients must have at least two cycles in the clinic prior to switching to at-home care.

“I can’t speak highly enough about this program,” Erika says. “This provided an avenue for me to take less time off work and spend more time with my family and doing the things I enjoy. It was the perfect fit.”

The post Healing at Home appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

Imagine if you could create a digital clone of yourself that can be used to test various treatment options to determine which one is best for your real self. As strange as this may sound, it’s no longer in the realm of science fiction.

What Are Digital Twins?

According to consulting firm McKinsey & Co, “digital twin is a digital replica of a physical object, person, system or process, contextualized in a digital version of its environment. Digital twins can help many kinds of organizations simulate real situations and their outcomes, ultimately allowing them to make better decisions.”

In the inanimate world, that could include a computer model of an airplane that can be used to test out new design concepts or safety features, or a digital twin that simulates the functioning of a piece of machinery that needs an update. It's likely about $73.5 billion will be spent on this technology by 2027, including product, data and system twins.

How Are Digital Twins Used?

A recent study from Scientific Reports illustrates how the technology can be used in a medical setting. Indian investigators enrolled over 1,800 patients with type 2 diabetes and created a digital twin (DT) for each patient that simulated their metabolic status, dietary intake, blood glucose levels and lifestyle habits, enabling the twin to predict a patient’s outcomes.

Shamanna et al explained: “The DT system continuously collects and analyzes data from various sensors and inputs, allowing it to offer personalized dietary and lifestyle recommendations that are precisely calibrated to minimize PPGRs [postprandial glucose response] and improve overall glycemic control. The DT platform will suggest the right food to the right participant at the right time based on current readings. The behavioral nudges provided by the digital twin were accompanied by human coaching.”

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This kind of individualized advice goes way beyond what is offered to patients with diabetes, who typically receive recommendations based on static guidelines and the results of the blood glucose.

The study results suggest digital twin technology works. At one-year follow-up, patients on the program saw significant improvement in hemoglobin A1c levels, with a drop of 1.8%, and 89% achieved a drop to less than 7%, a goal that diabetes experts recommend. They also required significantly less antidiabetes medication and experienced better weight reduction and less insulin resistance.

Similarly, researchers from Yale School of Medicine, University of Oxford and elsewhere have shown that digital twin technology has the potential to transform cardiovascular medicine. Thangaraj et al explain that these cardiac replicas can “enhance disease phenotyping, enrich diagnostic workflows, and optimize procedural planning. Digital twin technology is rapidly evolving in the setting of newly available data modalities and advances in generative artificial intelligence, enabling dynamic and comprehensive simulations unique to an individual. These twins fuse physiologic, environmental and healthcare data into machine learning and generative models to build real-time patient predictions that can model interactions with the clinical environment to accelerate personalized patient care.”

In simple English, the healthcare data they refer to integrates various diagnostic procedures — e.g., ECGs, cardiac imaging and vital signs — with several other multimodal sources, including content from an individual patient’s electronic health record, their lifestyle decisions, and their exposure to climate change, medications, environmental toxins and so on. These resources enable clinicians to make predictions about what is likely to happen to the real patient being profiled. Studies suggest, for instance, that digital twins may help cardiologists estimate an individual’s risk of ventricular arrhythmias if they already have ischemic cardiomyopathy by using certain anatomical substrates, triggers and modulators.

Digital Twins in Action

Phyllis M. Thangaraj, M.D., Ph.D., a cardiology fellow at Yale School of Medicine, and her colleagues provide an example of how the technology might work.

Ms. K, 76 years old, has heart failure, preserved ejection fraction, type 2 diabetes, obesity and hypertension. Her electronic health record offers additional data, including an enlarged left atrium, and a note recommending her diuretic be paused because hydrochlorothiazide has lowered her potassium level and increased uric acid.

Her digital twin model is created based on all her data and runs a simulation of different blood pressure and diuretic drugs, comparing it to other patients with similar profiles. The twin also takes into account the latest guidelines and randomized controlled trials, finally recommending the patient be put back on hydrochlorothiazide and several other medications.

While this scenario is not yet within reach of most healthcare providers, it has the potential to profoundly transform patient care.

This article was originally published on Mayo Clinic Platform.

The post Digital Twin Technology Has Potential to Redefine Care appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.