Thought Leadership Archives - Mayo Clinic Magazine https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/category/healthcare-transformation/thought-leadership/ Mayo Clinic Magazine is a window into the world of the people, patients and philanthropic efforts driving innovation and excellence at Mayo Clinic. Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:34:26 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 Caring in Community: LaPrincess Brewer, M.D., M.P.H. https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/2025/09/caring-in-community/ Tue, 02 Sep 2025 14:29:20 +0000 https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/?p=9361 "We can seize this moment to have an impact on communities that have been historically overlooked."

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For cardiologist LaPrincess Brewer, M.D., M.P.H., promoting heart health in underserved and under-resourced communities is both a professional mission and a deeply personal calling.

Through her groundbreaking Fostering African-American Improvement in Total Health (FAITH!) program at Mayo Clinic, she partners with Black churches to combat cardiovascular health disparities. She has focused her clinical practice and research on making preventive care more accessible and effective for all patients. She sat down with Mayo Clinic Magazine to share her connection to her work.

The African American church was the foundation of my upbringing in Charlotte, North Carolina. I saw so many people passing away from preventable diseases like heart disease and stroke. It was devastating to see these people who had helped to raise me pass away so early.

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One of the key moments that I remember was when our pastor passed away as a result of diseases that could have been prevented if he’d had the right care and resources. He was the shepherd of the flock, and there was an immediate change in the atmosphere within the church without its leader. I have carried that moment with me. I still honor our pastor, and I hope that I’m honoring him by giving back and making sure we combat the health disparities that affect the community.

During my public health studies at Johns Hopkins University, I took a course that charged us with coming up with a way to influence health disparities and to promote health within the surrounding Baltimore, Maryland, community. It was a group project, and we jointly created the FAITH! program. We said, “What’s the institution that has been here for centuries that has had the most influence on this population?” and it was the Black church. And we said, “Why don’t we come up with a program that partners with a Black church that can then promote heart health?”

We can seize this moment to have an impact on communities that have been historically overlooked.

— LaPRINCESS BREWER, M.D., M.P.H.

That’s how FAITH! was born. We approached a church that was a stone’s throw away from Johns Hopkins to see if they would be interested in partnering with us. I was able to expand FAITH! to Minnesota when I started my cardiology fellowship at Mayo Clinic, and it has continued to flourish.

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I’m truly amazed at the advances we’ve had throughout my career in managing chronic diseases and cardiovascular disease risk factors. I am really looking forward to further innovations through technology, including mobile health, wearables and artificial intelligence that can address many of those risk factors early on to prevent people from getting heart disease in the first place. I also am looking forward to preventive cardiology focusing more on the social and behavioral aspects of medicine and public health, particularly the social and structural determinants of health.

We can seize this moment to have an impact on communities that have been historically overlooked. We need to take a holistic approach — looking at patients’ environments and how those environments influence what we are recommending, and if they even have the capacity to engage in many of our recommendations. We need to help address those environmental factors that may promote or hinder them from achieving the best health outcomes.

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Digital Twin Technology Has Potential to Redefine Care https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/2025/05/digital-twin-technology/ Mon, 19 May 2025 15:42:05 +0000 https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/?p=8457 Creating a digital clone of yourself is no longer in the realm of science fiction.

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John D. Halamka, M.D., M.S., is the Dwight and Dian Diercks President, Mayo Clinic Platform, and Michael D. Brennan, M.D., President's Strategic Initiative Professor. Paul Cerrato, M.A., is a senior research analyst and communications specialist.


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.

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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.

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Vijay Shah, M.D., Leads Transformational Change Through Self-Care https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/2025/05/vijay-shah-leads-transformational-change-through-self-care/ Thu, 08 May 2025 15:21:49 +0000 https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/?p=8347 Vijay Shah, M.D., exemplifies transformational leadership by innovating to prevent burnout.

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Leading transformational change requires transformational leaders. At Mayo Clinic, we’re making a concerted effort to cultivate five core skills to help our leaders sustain performance, inspire and motivate staff, and build a workforce that drives patient-centered healthcare transformation from within. 

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, highlights Mayo Clinic leaders who exemplify these competencies with the hope that their stories will inspire others to come forward to lead healthcare transformation at this critical juncture.


“Leads self” means taking action to address personal well-being, manage stress and mitigate burnout while modeling these behaviors for others and using these actions to be a more effective, productive and innovative leader. 

Prioritizing self-care helps us maintain stamina for the leadership journey. Self-care takes many forms, and at Mayo, one of the ways we prioritize self-care is by finding joy and fulfillment at work. Personally, I have always found joy in my work as a researcher, and despite the demands of current or previous leadership roles, I have kept research as part of my life as a source of fulfillment. I also designate three days a month of “brain freedom” for personal reflection or stimulating conversation with thought leaders internal and external to Mayo Clinic. 

Prioritizing personal and professional development is also essential to self-care. To support this, we have created self-guided activities that focus on social, financial, emotional and physical well-being, as well as collaborative workshops and coaching groups to enhance work-life integration and meaning in work. 

Self-care in healthcare also requires proactive steps to mitigate burnout, including embracing new technologies and innovations like automation that free up time for more meaningful tasks. 

Vijay Shah, M.D., Kinney Executive Dean of Research and Carol M. Gatton Professor of Digestive Diseases Research, exemplifies the competency of “leads self” through his efforts to support well-being and his personal commitment to consistent self-reflection. 

Defining Key Qualities for Transformational Leadership

Three years ago — to further drive our Bold. Forward. strategy for healthcare transformation by developing the workforce of the future — we revamped our traditional, incremental approach to leadership development. Our new leadership strategy continues to be built upon the foundations of the Mayo Clinic Model of Care and our values, but we have also prioritized five core competencies that are critical for successful leadership at Mayo Clinic. 

Developed by our People and Culture Committee under the leadership of Charanjit (Chet) Rihal, M.D., in collaboration with Karen Mellum, Ph.D., SPHR, and Claire Reeve, PHR, SHRM-SCP, Mayo identified these five skills — Leads Self, Leads Others, Inspires Others, Forward Thinking and Engages Others (L-LIFE) — and solicited feedback, interviews and focus groups with various stakeholders and then validated them through another study involving more than 200 physicians and their administrative partners.

Each of the five identified leadership competencies differentiates successful leadership performance at Mayo Clinic and has been intentionally defined to guide and measure how our leaders work with and through others to accomplish patient-centered healthcare transformation. 

While leading Mayo Clinic in Rochester’s Department of Medicine, Dr. Shah initiated a transformative strategy to support well-being and professional growth amid the ongoing nationwide threat of physician burnout. Through his leadership, the department has introduced new well-being programs tailored to diverse wellness needs, including piloting the Headspace mental health app prior to its rollout across Mayo Clinic and launching a well-being coaching program that improved clinician well-being scores by 17% using the World Health Organization well-being index. Dr. Shah also initiated career development strategies to better support physicians at every career stage, implementing a six-month program to help them create personalized career plans. 

Recognizing the critical need to ease the burden of clinical documentation for all members of the care team, Dr. Shah also led our Electronic Health Record (EHR) Reimagined Challenge to encourage staff to share their innovative ideas for how to make Mayo’s EHR work better. As a result, departments have implemented new documentation solutions, utilized AI to enhance note-taking during patient visits, tested AI-generated message prompts in patient portals, and categorized patient messages based on required actions. These innovations have created new and better ways to serve our patients while helping improve work experiences for care teams. Dr. Shah is now serving as the Kinney Executive Dean of Research and Carol M. Gatton Professor of Digestive Diseases Research, where his approach to self-development is helping to encourage and inspire others to persevere through change and lean into the digital transformation of our research shield at Mayo Clinic. 

On a personal level, Dr. Shah believes the hardest part of leadership is often self-management. To help better promote that capability within his own career, each morning he dedicates time to self-reflection, asking himself — What did I do well yesterday? What could I do better? He approaches these questions with genuine curiosity about his interactions and how to improve them.


This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

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Ajani Dunn Engages Others to Lead Change https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/2025/03/ajani-dunn-engages-others-to-lead-change/ Thu, 06 Mar 2025 16:06:54 +0000 https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/?p=8308 As chief administrative officer of Mayo Clinic in Florida, Ajani Dunn embraces ambiguity and complexity.

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Leading transformational change requires transformational leaders. At Mayo Clinic, we’re making a concerted effort to cultivate five core skills to help our leaders sustain performance, inspire and motivate staff, and build a workforce that drives patient-centered healthcare transformation from within. 

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, highlights Mayo Clinic leaders who exemplify these competencies with the hope that their stories will inspire others to come forward to lead healthcare transformation at this critical juncture.


In times of transformation, we need leaders who engage with others to guide change. People with this competency navigate ambiguity by remaining grounded in our core values while helping others in the organization see the benefits of change. 

One of Mayo Clinic’s founders, Charlie Mayo, M.D., famously said, "Today the only thing that is permanent is change." This is just as important today as when he said it more than 90 years ago. Leaders must become master change agents, while remaining servant leaders, which means they must be dedicated to our primary value — the needs of the patient come first — while building consensus around innovative, unconventional ways to accomplish it. 

Ajani (AJ) Dunn, FACHE, chief administrative officer of Mayo Clinic in Florida, embraces ambiguity and complexity and is an excellent example of “engages others” to lead change. 

In 2019, AJ led our effort to establish Advanced Care at Home, which offers acute, inpatient-level care to people in the comfort of their own homes. 

Defining Key Qualities for Transformational Leadership

Three years ago — to further drive our Bold. Forward. strategy for healthcare transformation by developing the workforce of the future — we revamped our traditional, incremental approach to leadership development. Our new leadership strategy continues to be built upon the foundations of the Mayo Clinic Model of Care and our values, but we have also prioritized five core competencies that are critical for successful leadership at Mayo Clinic. 

Developed by our People and Culture Committee under the leadership of Charanjit (Chet) Rihal, M.D., in collaboration with Karen Mellum, Ph.D., SPHR, and Claire Reeve, PHR, SHRM-SCP, Mayo identified these five skills — Leads Self, Leads Others, Inspires Others, Forward Thinking and Engages Others (L-LIFE) — and solicited feedback, interviews and focus groups with various stakeholders and then validated them through another study involving more than 200 physicians and their administrative partners.

Each of the five identified leadership competencies differentiates successful leadership performance at Mayo Clinic and has been intentionally defined to guide and measure how our leaders work with and through others to accomplish patient-centered healthcare transformation. 

Realizing the critical need for more flexible care options during the pandemic, AJ helped Mayo Clinic bring together multiple elements, including our Platform, our internal digital health teams and an external implementation partner, Medically Home, to create a more seamless hospital-at-home care experience. Even amid significant ambiguity, AJ deftly surrounded himself with a network of stakeholders and experts — from nursing and physician leaders to supply chain and IT teams — to help shape a vision for the new program. 

To foster support for the new program, AJ consistently connected every aspect of the project back to its primary goal of improving patient care, emphasizing that the new care model would enable patients to heal in the comfort of their own homes and manage their conditions in a familiar environment. 

By embedding the program’s patient-centered vision in all aspects of his leadership, AJ helped foster both enthusiasm and commitment to making the care model a success. Today, more than 29,500 patients have been treated through this care model, and studies have shown that hospital-quality care at home has reduced infections and falls, and improved patient outcomes and satisfaction.


This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

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Christina Zorn Leads Others Through Commitment to Mentorship https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/2025/02/christina-zorn-leads-others-through-commitment-to-mentorship/ Thu, 06 Feb 2025 14:37:17 +0000 https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/?p=8303 Christina Zorn is nurturing leaders to shape the future of healthcare.

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Leading transformational change requires transformational leaders. At Mayo Clinic, we’re making a concerted effort to cultivate five core skills to help our leaders sustain performance, inspire and motivate staff, and build a workforce that drives patient-centered healthcare transformation from within. 

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, highlights Mayo Clinic leaders who exemplify these competencies with the hope that their stories will inspire others to come forward to lead healthcare transformation at this critical juncture.


The competency of “leads others” involves developing talent by mentoring, sponsoring and coaching people, using personalized guidance based on current circumstances and individual characteristics. 

Leadership development and mentorship are critical to building the next generation of healthcare leaders. While we often think of formal leadership programs in this regard, I have found even a five-minute informal conversation — where honesty and transparency are prioritized — can instill critical knowledge and inspiration to shape the leaders of tomorrow. 

At Mayo Clinic, one of the ways we’re prioritizing talent development is by actively regenerating our workforce. For example, we support career investment programs that offer staff relevant degree and certification programs that align with our Bold. Forward. strategy and current and future patient needs. We’re also investing in generative AI education and resources, creating an avenue for staff to learn about and apply AI as a routine and integrated part of healthcare and not fear it. In addition to these activities, we expect Mayo leaders to actively participate in the recruitment of new staff and to foster a welcoming environment that emphasizes collaboration, mentorship and shared growth from day one. 

Mayo Clinic’s Christina Zorn, chief administrative officer, emulates “leads others” through her commitment to talent development and her focus on nurturing leaders who are equipped to shape the future of healthcare. 

Defining Key Qualities for Transformational Leadership

Three years ago — to further drive our Bold. Forward. strategy for healthcare transformation by developing the workforce of the future — we revamped our traditional, incremental approach to leadership development. Our new leadership strategy continues to be built upon the foundations of the Mayo Clinic Model of Care and our values, but we have also prioritized five core competencies that are critical for successful leadership at Mayo Clinic. 

Developed by our People and Culture Committee under the leadership of Charanjit (Chet) Rihal, M.D., in collaboration with Karen Mellum, Ph.D., SPHR, and Claire Reeve, PHR, SHRM-SCP, Mayo identified these five skills — Leads Self, Leads Others, Inspires Others, Forward Thinking and Engages Others (L-LIFE) — and solicited feedback, interviews and focus groups with various stakeholders and then validated them through another study involving more than 200 physicians and their administrative partners.

Each of the five identified leadership competencies differentiates successful leadership performance at Mayo Clinic and has been intentionally defined to guide and measure how our leaders work with and through others to accomplish patient-centered healthcare transformation. 

Leadership and talent development within Mayo's administrative areas has been significantly strengthened under Christina’s leadership. She has played a vital role in preparing a qualified group of leaders for future administrative executive roles by establishing processes to thoroughly assess candidates’ readiness, skills, potential, strengths and areas for growth to support our Bold. Forward. strategy. 

Appreciating the need to partner with the best clinicians and researchers in the world, Christina has committed to ensuring our administrative talent is in a category of one. For example, to ensure the future success of emerging leaders, she launched a yearlong mentoring program where each administrative leader sponsors an individual from their succession pool to be intentionally mentored by another administrative leader. After a successful initial cohort, the program has expanded to include additional cohorts of talented individuals from across the organization. What began as succession planning for executive roles within Mayo Clinic’s administrative team has evolved under Christina's leadership to drive authentic and transparent talent development conversations and succession planning deeper into the organization. 

In another example of leading others, Christina routinely rounds in various departments and areas to gather direct and unfiltered feedback about how leaders can help local teams address areas for improvement. By spending time with our staff in their work areas to understand their needs, she is fostering a collaborative and supportive environment where leaders are actively invested in our staff’s success. She would be the first to tell you this is one of the activities she believes every leader should do — and how much she benefits and learns from frontline staff.


This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

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Cheryl Willman, M.D., Inspires Others With Cancer Center Vision https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/2025/01/cheryl-willman-inspires-others-with-cancer-center-vision/ Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:47:42 +0000 https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/?p=8243 Dr. Willman mobilizes others toward a common goal through her efforts to revolutionize cancer care.

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Leading transformational change requires transformational leaders. At Mayo Clinic, we’re making a concerted effort to cultivate five core skills to help our leaders sustain performance, inspire and motivate staff, and build a workforce that drives patient-centered healthcare transformation from within. 

Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, highlights Mayo Clinic leaders who exemplify these competencies with the hope that their stories will inspire others to come forward to lead healthcare transformation at this critical juncture.


The leadership competency of “inspires others” means creating a vision of the future and helping others see how they can help achieve it. At Mayo, this involves advancing our Bold. Forward. strategic plan to Cure, Connect and Transform healthcare. 

Cheryl Willman, M.D., Stephen and Barbara Slaggie Executive Director of Mayo Clinic Cancer Programs and Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, demonstrates what it means to inspire and mobilize others toward a common vision through her efforts to revolutionize cancer care for patients at Mayo Clinic and around the world. 

Dr. Willman has led the development of a strategy, aligned with Mayo Clinic’s 2030 Bold. Forward. strategy, to drive innovative cancer research that will uncover new diagnostics and therapeutics and to transform cancer care to make it more personalized and accessible, at any place and any time. Under her leadership, many individuals have been inspired to join Mayo Clinic and the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center to develop new research programs focused on cancer risk assessment, early detection and interception to detect and treat very early cancers and precancers when they are most curable, and to focus on the development of highly innovative treatments and treatment modalities for advanced and complex cancers.

Defining Key Qualities for Transformational Leadership

Three years ago — to further drive our Bold. Forward. strategy for healthcare transformation by developing the workforce of the future — we revamped our traditional, incremental approach to leadership development. Our new leadership strategy continues to be built upon the foundations of the Mayo Clinic Model of Care and our values, but we have also prioritized five core competencies that are critical for successful leadership at Mayo Clinic. 

Developed by our People and Culture Committee under the leadership of Charanjit (Chet) Rihal, M.D., in collaboration with Karen Mellum, Ph.D., SPHR, and Claire Reeve, PHR, SHRM-SCP, Mayo identified these five skills — Leads Self, Leads Others, Inspires Others, Forward Thinking and Engages Others (L-LIFE) — and solicited feedback, interviews and focus groups with various stakeholders and then validated them through another study involving more than 200 physicians and their administrative partners.

Each of the five identified leadership competencies differentiates successful leadership performance at Mayo Clinic and has been intentionally defined to guide and measure how our leaders work with and through others to accomplish patient-centered healthcare transformation. 

To achieve this vision and accelerate our Bold. Forward. strategy, Dr. Willman and the team are prioritizing the need for tools, such as genomic sequencing, genetic and cellular engineering, spatial cancer cell and tissue analysis, data science and predictive modeling, and AI and automation. In collaboration with Mayo Clinic Platform and Mayo’s Generative AI Program, Dr. Willman and colleagues are developing longitudinal patient cohorts and datasets to develop multimodal AI algorithms and large language models to detect cancer earlier and deliver appropriately timed interventions, help physicians and scientists develop more personalized treatment options for patients, and guide patients to specific clinical trials testing promising new therapies. 

The Cancer Center has used Mayo Clinic Platform to develop the revolutionary Cancer Care Beyond Walls program to bring cancer treatments to patients in their homes and community settings, significantly improving access to care and also improving health equity. By inspiring others to excel, under Dr. Willman’s leadership, the program has delivered more than 200 chemotherapy infusions to patients in their homes in its first year of operation, reducing the financial and emotional burden for patients with cancer who may otherwise have to travel long distances for care. Working with our research teams, the Cancer Center is also using digital tools and platforms to decentralize research and conduct clinical trials in patient homes and community settings in the Clinical Trials Beyond Walls Program. Today, more than 340 of Mayo’s cancer clinical trials are using these tools to enhance patient access and participation in clinical trials. 

Throughout her career, Dr. Willman has championed access to quality healthcare and participation in research for underrepresented and underserved communities. In addition to pioneering new initiatives at Mayo, she leads one of the nation’s five National Cancer Institute Cancer Genome Sequencing Centers focused on ensuring access to cancer genome sequencing and cancer care for understudied and underrepresented populations, with her work focused on Indigenous American Indians impacted by cancer.


This article was originally published on LinkedIn.

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Reimagining Healthcare Buildings https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/2024/07/re-imagining-healthcare-buildings/ Mon, 01 Jul 2024 12:55:24 +0000 https://mayomagazine.mayoclinic.org/?p=6274 Join Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., in exploring how Mayo Clinic is redefining the future of medicine.

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Mayo Clinic is reimagining how to use physical space to care for patients. This once-in-three-generation opportunity to transform hospital infrastructure will change the patient experience by accelerating medical breakthroughs, enhancing therapies, and increasing access to exceptional care. Join Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., President and CEO, in exploring how Mayo Clinic is redefining the future of medicine.


Across the globe, we are providing 21st century healthcare in 20th century buildings. Not only do we need new and better spaces, but we must also rethink how we use space in healthcare, including how to merge inpatient, outpatient and digital care into a platform model of healthcare that is seamless, dynamic and self-improving.

A History of Transformation

Mayo Clinic has a rich history of inventing and reinventing the future of exceptional, Category-of-One care for patients. For example, in 1928, Mayo Clinic opened the Plummer Building, which fostered the integrated group practice of medicine by bringing together multiple medical specialists under one roof and facilitating medical record sharing via an innovative pneumatic tube system. Three decades later, Mayo Clinic studied and developed a novel concept at the time — the radial or “circular” nursing unit, with a central desk surrounded by patient rooms that enabled the care team to see all the patients, all of the time. These design concepts became models for how people practiced medicine in the United States.

Today, we continue to lead patient-centered healthcare transformation through our Bold. Forward. strategy, which importantly includes designing space for the future of care. Launched five years ago, Bold. Forward. aims to discover more Cures for our patients; Connect people and data to create new scalable knowledge; and Transform our entire healthcare system from a linear pipeline model to an entirely new model — a scalable, highly collaborative platform model. But to accomplish Bold. Forward., we must also think creatively about the space we need for our patients, our staff, and a transformed healthcare system.

Bold. Forward. Unbound.

Bold. Forward. Unbound. is our vision for the future of healthcare infrastructure and represents a once-in-three-generations investment across all our sites. Physical transformation is already underway at Mayo Clinic in Florida, Mayo Clinic in Arizona, and Mayo Clinic Health System, and the Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Rochester plan was unveiled last fall.

The goal of Bold. Forward. Unbound. is not simply different buildings, but radically better spaces that bring teams and patients together in an environment that is designed to transform the patient experience, advance teamwork, create more cures, and improve outcomes.

The physical spaces where today’s care teams work, conduct research and train future healthcare leaders are central components of what makes exceptional care possible, but they are now largely obsolete. To create the future of care, we must invest in physical infrastructure that takes into account the evolving needs of patients with serious or complex care needs, their families and healthcare staff.

Imagine a healthcare world where a patient’s hospital room is an integral part of their care team, where physical infrastructure is complemented by artificial intelligence and robotics operating in the background to provide added support for clinicians and nurses so they can spend more time with their patients. Bold. Forward. Unbound. brings to life this future state of care where a patient’s room sees, hears, anticipates and reacts to their needs alongside their care team to re-imagine the experience of healthcare.

Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Rochester

Mayo Clinic in Rochester

Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Rochester is our biggest, most ambitious and most forward-looking vision for healthcare physical infrastructure. Like the Plummer Building in 1928 and the circular unit in 1957, Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Rochester will serve as an inspiration for the future of healthcare.

At first glance, it may appear that we’re simply constructing a few new buildings in Rochester. But inside those buildings lies transformational change that will blur the lines across hospital, clinic and digital care to meet patients’ needs — wherever they are.

Flexible Spaces With People at the Center

Our new buildings, designed in collaboration with Foster + Partners and CannonDesign, are being built with a universal, flexible grid to allow the building to adapt to change over time. We will provide patients with personalized arrival experiences tailored to their specific healthcare needs, with spaces designed to transition patients intuitively among diagnostic imaging suites, to operating rooms, to patient rooms throughout their stay. Spaces will also adapt seamlessly to digital, outpatient, inpatient and post-hospital care needs as they arise, allowing the care team to personalize care for patients and their loved ones.

Our new spaces will include built-in resources to deliver next-generation care experiences. For example, we are designing spaces that integrate automation to streamline daily tasks, such as reminding hospitalized patients about their upcoming tests as well as incorporating predictive AI tools to help clinicians make early diagnoses. With these efforts, our patient rooms and other spaces truly enable better healthcare and become another member of the care team.

Of course, we also want our spaces to be warm and welcoming for patients, who often come to us at vulnerable times of their lives, and therefore we have created “neighborhoods” that will serve as “home” while they are receiving care. Neighborhoods bring familiarity to our spaces, conveniently locating essential services in close proximity to patients and care teams to minimize trips across campus and better support our collaborative model of care. Neighborhoods will also feature natural materials, sunlight, winter gardens and interconnected public spaces to create a calming atmosphere that supports a patient’s overall well-being.

Arizona. Bold. Forward: Building Synergies Between Research and Education

Each Mayo Clinic campus has unique needs based on the regions it serves, but all share a common mission to serve as a beacon of hope and healing to those in need. Mayo Clinic launched Arizona. Bold. Forward. to better serve the growing complex care needs of the Southwest, a project that not only doubled the campus size to accommodate more patients but is also transforming care delivery and research and education capabilities.

Like in Rochester, Arizona. Bold. Forward. is adding remote care platforms for chronic and acute care needs and advanced AI protocols to better predict and more reliably treat complex and serious illnesses.

Additionally, a new Integrated Education and Research Building will fuse medical education and research, bringing scientists side by side with learners to find new answers while simultaneously training future healthcare leaders. Within this new space, we are integrating technology to provide next-generation medical training, including organizing our multidisciplinary teams around common research focus areas and sharing critical technologies such as augmented and virtual reality training scenarios and 3D-model rendering for radiographic images and biological specimens. With the new building in close proximity to Discovery Oasis and the Arizona State University Health Futures Center, Mayo Clinic in Arizona’s campus will transform into a highly collaborative innovation hub focused on finding new cures and growing the workforce of tomorrow.

Mayo Clinic Integrated Education and Research Building

Mayo Clinic in Florida: Advancing cancer care, creating a healing environment

Bold. Forward. Unbound. in Florida is creating a smart campus through human-centered spaces that expand patient care capabilities, biomedical research and education, all connected through integrated technology.

With an added 750,000 square feet by 2026, Mayo Clinic in Florida’s campus will transform into a member of the patient’s care team. Patient rooms will be meticulously designed to promote healing, connection and adaptability, equipped with ambient clinical intelligence and wireless vitals monitoring to allow care teams to gather just-in-time clinical information with minimal disruptions. Technology will become nearly invisible to the patient, allowing care teams to maintain personal connections to their patients while having access to resources that continuously improve outcomes.

To further create a healing environment, our designs will increase sunlight in patient rooms by over 80%, and rooms will be equipped to react to patient preferences, such as voice commands to adjust room lighting or temperature. Behind the scenes, care teams will benefit from added automation to support clinical documentation, supply needs and fall-risk notifications.

As we look to better meet the needs of our patients with novel treatment options, a new integrated oncology building will give patients more access to cutting-edge cancer treatment options through proton beam therapy and North America’s first carbon ion therapy unit. Located near other hematology and oncology services, the new building will further integrate cancer care on the Florida campus to create a more seamless, coordinated care experience.

Mayo Clinic in Florida's Integrated Oncology Facility

Mayo Clinic Health System: Transforming Community Care

We must think innovatively about what the future of healthcare looks like for everyone, regardless of physical location. Community-based patients deserve access to timely, specialty care, delivered by compassionate care teams equipped with Category-of-One resources and technology. Expansions at our community-based facilities, Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse and Mankato, will transform local healthcare and set the standard for community health systems nationally through future-oriented spaces designed for convenience, safety and quality.

Within these new spaces, patients will have connected care experiences tailored to their unique needs, including virtual access to subspecialty clinicians at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, to get the answers they need without leaving their communities. Patients and staff also will feel more connected to care plans with the addition of smartboards in patient rooms, virtual nursing resources and digital technology to enhance workflows.

New Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse Hospital

A new 96-bed tower in La Crosse, Wisconsin, will bring an unparalleled care experience to community-based patients, integrating these new technologies alongside design enhancements aimed at elevating the overall experience for both patients and staff.

At Mayo Clinic Health System in Mankato, three new recently opened floors are modernizing the patient care environment through automation, noise-reducing architectural enhancements, larger spaces for patient care and staff support, and more. Both projects are bringing transformed environments required to best serve our community patients with consistent and connected care experiences that preserve human interaction while leveraging novel technologies that are advancing cures.

Harmonizing Physical and Digital for the Future of Care

Physical infrastructure and digital capabilities must work together to create the future of care. By successfully integrating the two, we can create a higher-quality, more sustainable healthcare system that will better serve everybody.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn. 

The post Reimagining Healthcare Buildings appeared first on Mayo Clinic Magazine.

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