Hope & Healing

Sean C. Dowdy, M.D., is the chief value officer at Mayo Clinic and the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Associate Dean for Practice Transformation. He shares how quality serves as the foundation of Mayo Clinic’s approach, extending beyond patient care to include staff experience, health equity, and the cost of care. 

Charlotte Markle's kidney transplant at Mayo Clinic was over 57 years ago on March 2, 1966, making her Mayo's longest-surviving transplant recipient. Marking its 60th anniversary this month, the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center is the largest integrated transplant center in the U.S.

Despite a record year for organ donation last year in the U.S., an estimated 17 people die every day waiting for a transplant. Yet Mayo Clinic transplant experts are optimistic that solutions to some of the biggest transplant challenges are on the horizon, thanks to new technology, research and innovations. 

When Joanina Gicobi, Ph.D., began her degree five years ago at Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, she was interested in thinking creatively about ways to improve cancer treatment. In particular, she was curious about the body's natural ability to fight tumors: Could that process be improved?  

Paula Quinn didn’t know if she would ever ride horses again after treatment for her aggressive cancer damaged her heart and eventually caused her to require a transplant. But beautiful, magnificent creatures were an irresistible draw.

Serving in the U.S. Navy was a formative experience for Leonard A. Lauder. The former CEO of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. — and proud veteran — is helping fund cutting-edge Mayo Clinic research that could benefit his fellow veterans who were suffering from back pain and spinal cord injuries.

When Judy Alico passed away at age 51, her family was shell-shocked and heartbroken. Her husband, Bob, took action, forming a nonprofit to raise awareness and funding for Mayo Clinic and other organizations to study the condition that took Judy's life.

Judy Ethen lost her father and brother to pancreatic cancer. Her own case was diagnosed and treated early through Mayo Clinic’s High-Risk Pancreas Clinic, made possible by a generous gift of $22.1 million.

In an old family farmhouse outside small Delavan, Minnesota, Mike Hoffman is getting to know his mom a bit better. She died nearly 40 years ago, but through a stack of yellowed letters, Mike and his wife, Tami, are delving into a part of her life that they didn't previously know much about -- her life built upon her nursing studies at Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic has made important contributions to space medicine and research since the dawn of the U.S. space program, and prior to that with aeronautical research during World War II.