Kenneth Adams understands the importance of love, resilience and family. After his wife's passing in 2022, Adams reconnected with a lifelong friend, whom he had known for nearly 50 years. Kenneth and Susan Kidd eventually fell in love, and they were committed to building a life together.

"We love to travel and spend time with family — we wanted our relationship to be an example for our grandchildren. And to us, marriage was the next step," Adams said.

While making plans for a wedding in early 2025, Kenneth became ill and was diagnosed with sepsis. His complex condition required coordinated care, so the team at Mayo Clinic developed a plan: antibiotics administered intravenously every day for six weeks. Instead of staying in the hospital for the duration of the treatment, Kenneth's care team determined he was a candidate for Mayo Clinic's Advanced Care at Home program.

Going home

Advanced Care at Home offers patients high-acuity care, delivered in the comfort of their home. With around-the-clock access, advanced technology and a dedicated in-home care team, patients receive comprehensive treatment while minimizing stress and disruption to daily life. 

"With Advanced Care at Home, we can treat, monitor and communicate with patients as we would in a hospital setting, without recreating the feeling of being in a hospital setting," says Dr. Michael Maniaci, director of Advanced Care at Home.

For Kenneth, receiving treatment at home allowed him to maintain his routine, enjoy meals and sleep without interruption. 

“The program provided everything you would need in a hospital but with the comforts of home and closeness of family," Kenneth says. "They had the procedures down, the infrastructure and the systems in place — it was a dream come true."

As the end of his treatment neared and his strength improved, Kenneth and Susan began thinking about a wedding ceremony again.

A wedding between treatments

On May 19, 2025, Kenneth and Susan invited a pair of close friends and a pastor to their Ponte Vedra, Florida, home. The couple was married in their backyard, and just an hour after saying "I do," Kenneth received one of his daily treatments.

"Getting married was a goal for Mr. Adams, so as his care team, we made sure he could achieve that goal safely and on his terms," Dr. Maniaci says.

Kenneth credits Advanced Care at Home with making the wedding possible. He was discharged from the program a week later with no signs of sepsis. 

“People heal better at home," he says. “I feel that I'm living proof of that. There was no burden on my family — the team handled everything – and by being at home, I could get married,” Kenneth says.

By late July, Kenneth was well enough to resume another passion: travel. A trip that had been postponed earlier in the year was back on the calendar as a honeymoon. Looking ahead, Kenneth is preparing for an annual family trip in October. He continues to live with purpose and gratitude. 

“I want to do what I can, while I can,” Kenneth says. "I can do so much more with my health restored."

The post How Advanced Care at Home helped make Kenneth Adams’ wedding day possible appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

While doctors are often focused on monitoring the health and vital signs of others, a new study had some tuning in to their own health and vital statistics as well. The results suggest that doing so may offer doctors real benefits to their own well-being, in a scalable way. 

Physicians who wore a smartwatch and had access to their personal health data — including information on their heart rate, sleep, breathing patterns and physical activity — reported greater resilience and 54% saw a reduction in the overall odds of burnout compared to those who did not receive a study smartwatch, according to new research published in JAMA Network Open. Mayo Clinic investigators conducted the study in collaboration with the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

"Advancing care starts with caring for those who deliver it. We're shaping a future where the well-being of our workforce is integral to the care we deliver."   - Colin West, M.D., Ph.D., Medical Director of Employee Well-Being at Mayo Clinic

Physician well-being is essential not only to personal health, but also to the quality of care patients receive. It's tied to job performance, patient safety, access to care and workforce sustainability.  

That’s why Mayo Clinic and others are prioritizing strategies to strengthen and sustain the well-being of healthcare professionals. 

How the smartwatch trial was designed and conducted 

The 12-month trial was conducted at Mayo Clinic and the University of Colorado School of Medicine. It included 184 physicians across specialties such as primary care, surgery, neurology and oncology. Researchers randomly assigned about half of the participants to wear a smartwatch for the full 12 months, while they gave the other half the watch during the study’s second half.

All participants received brief newsletters with general tips on smartwatch use and reminders to sync their devices. These resources aimed to support awareness of the tools and encourage engagement with personal health data.

Physicians in both study groups wore the device more than 70% of the time during the trial. Participants also completed validated well-being surveys at the beginning and end of the study. 

Participants could view their health data through a mobile app but were not prompted to take specific actions in response to it. Researchers say even this passive approach may help support well-being.  

Designing smarter tools for a healthy workforce

The study was co-designed and led by Arjun Athreya, Ph.D., an electrical and computer engineer in Mayo Clinic's Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics; Colin West, M.D., Ph.D., medical director of Employee Well-Being at Mayo Clinic; and study Principal Investigator Liselotte Dyrbye, M.D., M.H.P.E., senior associate dean for faculty and chief well-being officer at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.  

"We're entering an era where wearable technology, when paired with thoughtful design and artificial intelligence methods that use the data, could help personalize well-being strategies in clinical settings," Dr. Athreya says. "This study shows we can support healthcare professionals with passive monitoring digital technologies with innovative engagement strategies to provide potentially helpful data without adding burden to their day."  

The researchers say this approach can offer timely support as part of a broader physician well-being strategy. 

"While this is an individually focused intervention, it offers an evidence-based way to support physicians in the short term, complementing longer-term efforts aimed at addressing systemic contributors to physician stress," says Dr. Dyrbye. 

Caring for caregivers: A vision for the future

Next steps for the researchers include evaluating long-term outcomes of the smartwatch project. They also plan to explore whether this approach can support other healthcare professionals.

"Advancing care starts with caring for those who deliver it," says Dr. West. "We’re shaping a future where the well-being of our workforce is integral to the care we deliver."   

The Physicians Foundation, Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine partly funded the study. Review the study for a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding details. 

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This week's episode of Tomorrow's Cure comes to you from the PlatforMed Conference, held in June 2025 in Minneapolis. The event brought together more than 250 global leaders across healthcare, government, academia and business to explore the future of healthcare.

Hosted by Mayo Clinic, the conference examined how platform thinking is transforming clinical care. This forward-looking approach encourages multiple organizations to collaborate to co-create greater value for patients and consumers. In healthcare, platform thinking accelerates innovation, empowers clinicians and expands access to high-quality care.

Throughout the event, healthcare leaders joined Tomorrow's Cure host Cathy Wurzer to share their insights on the future of medicine. The episode features conversations with:

• John Halamka, M.D., Dwight and Dian Diercks President, Mayo Clinic Platform
• Maneesh Goyal, chief operating officer, Mayo Clinic Platform
• Clark Otley, M.D., chief medical officer, Mayo Clinic Platform 
• Sonya Makhni, M.D., medical director, Applied Informatics, Mayo Clinic Platform 
• Aashima Gupta, global director of healthcare strategy and solutions, Google Cloud 
• Rodrigo Bornhausen Demarch, M.D., chief innovation officer, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein 
• Patrick Woodard, M.D., chief information officer, Monument Health 
• Deepak Abraham, Ph.D., chief of medical staff, American Misson Hospital; medical director, King Hamad American Mission Hospital 

Mayo Clinic Platform is the first healthcare platform of its kind, connecting a global ecosystem of data, solution developers and healthcare professionals to drive innovation and deliver new cures.

Goyal highlights Mayo Clinic Platform's global mission, "The purpose of Mayo Clinic Platform is to enable others to deliver high-quality care based on what we know and have learned across our 160 years. So it's about scalability. Our primary call to action is how do we enable 50% of the healthcare providers globally to benefit from Mayo Clinic so that we can impact billions of lives? That’s a platform model. What we’re trying to do with healthcare is: How can we do that? And how can we do that at large scale?"

Mayo Clinic Platform not only connects de-identified clinical data from geographically and ethnically diverse populations, but also powers smarter care delivery:

• Enhancing efficiency – Reducing administrative burden so clinicians can focus on patients, not paperwork.
• Accelerating insights – Integrating digital solutions into clinical workflows to improve accuracy and speed of decision-making.
• Advancing research – Providing a wealth of data to develop tailored treatments and tackle rare, serious and complex diseases.

By linking past patient data to guide future care, Mayo Clinic Platform enables more personalized medicine, improves hospital operations and supports a more sustainable, patient-centered healthcare system.

Dr. Halamka closed the conference with an inspiring call to action, "So, you are here to make a difference. You're here to make an impact. You're here to be part of global transformation of healthcare, and you're here at a time where the only way to do it is partnership and collaboration around platform thinking."

Listen to this inspiring episode of Tomorrow's Cure at tomorrowscure.com. To learn more about Mayo Clinic Platform, visit mayoclinicplatform.org.

The post Live from PlatforMed: Perspectives on the future of healthcare appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

On this week's episode of Tomorrow's Cure, we explore brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), cutting-edge technologies that create direct communication pathways between the human brain and external devices. Once considered science fiction, BCIs are now transforming lives. 

The podcast episode features Dr. Jonathon Parker, epilepsy and functional neurosurgeon, assistant professor of neurosurgery and neuroscience, and director of the Neuroelectronics Research Lab at Mayo Clinic; and Dr. Allen Waziri, neuroscientist and neurosurgeon, and CEO and co-founder of iCE Neurosystems. Together, they discuss the science behind BCIs, current medical applications and the transformative possibilities they hold for the future.

BCIs offer groundbreaking possibilities in the treatment of neurological disorders, with the potential to restore mobility, communication and independence to people affected by severe neurologic injuries or conditions. Already, this technology is enabling users to control prosthetic limbs and digital interfaces through brain activity.

"The brain is a piece of hardware; the brain-computer interface is another piece of hardware we are connecting to the brain," says Dr. Parker. "We are used to communicating through speech, movement, understanding other sensory inputs, right? So this is digitizing those inputs to solve a problem." 

"BCIs, for several decades, is the translation of those electrical potentials that are coming off of the brain into something that we can understand on a computer side that will then functionalize whatever device — a robotic arm, a cursor on a screen, drive a wheelchair, so on and so forth," says Dr. Waziri.

BCIs are being used to assist people with neurological injuries that impair speech or movement. However, experts believe this technology has far greater potential. Beyond restoring motor function, BCIs could pave the way for continuous neurological monitoring and new forms of intervention, opening doors to transformative applications in brain health.

Dr. Parker emphasizes the broader clinical implications of the technology. "When delivered to clinicians so they can just monitor the brain signals overtime, (it) could have tremendous impact for epilepsy, depression, Alzheimer's — these conditions which are affecting huge swaths of our population. That's the future of this technology," he says. 

Don't miss this thought-provoking conversation on the evolving science of BCIs and the remarkable innovations that could redefine human-machine interaction. Listen to the latest episode of Tomorrow's Cure, and explore the full library of episodes and guests at tomorrowscure.com.

The post Tomorrow’s Cure: Mind meets machine — the future of neurological care appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

When the spine begins to curve sideways during childhood or adolescence, it can lead to a condition known as scoliosis. While traditional treatments have remained largely unchanged for decades, new advancements are offering young patients and their families more choices — and better outcomes. In this episode of Tomorrow's Cure, we explore the evolving landscape of scoliosis care and what these innovations mean for the future of spinal health.

Featured experts include Dr. A. Noelle Larson, orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic, and Michelle Marks, executive director of the Setting Scoliosis Straight Foundation. Together, they have developed a shared decision-making tool that helps guide families through the complex process of evaluating treatment options.

Scoliosis treatment is determined by the size of the spinal curve and the child's remaining growth. A common non-surgical intervention is the use of a hard plastic brace, often worn 13 to 18 hours a day, that can be physically and emotionally demanding for young patients.

Historically, the only surgical option was spinal fusion, in which vertebrae are joined using metal rods and screws to stabilize and straighten the spine. Over time, the vertebrae fuse together. While spinal fusion can be highly effective, it reduces spinal flexibility, which can be challenging for young athletes and active individuals.

Now, a new treatment called vertebral body tethering (VBT) is offering a motion-preserving alternative. This technique uses a flexible plastic cord, which allows for spinal movement while gradually straightening the spine as the child grows. The tether adapts to the patient's development, offering a more dynamic and less restrictive solution.

"Scoliosis is not cancer or life-threatening per se, but to that patient and that family, it's life-changing. Going through either a surgery or years and years of bracing takes a toll," said Marks. "They need support, and they need to know that there are incredible professionals that are spending all their free time trying to advance care in every way they can for patients with scoliosis."

The goal of Dr. Larson's and Marks' decision-making tool is to empower families through shared decision-making. By outlining key considerations identified through extensive research, the tool fosters meaningful conversations between clinicians and families, creating space for thoughtful, informed treatment choices.

"I believe that many parents know what's best for their own child, and I hope that in my encounter with families, I can educate them and provide options and help translate the best available evidence and the best available research to that family," said Dr. Larson. "Then the family is really making the decision."

Importantly, the tool also ensures that the child remains actively involved in their care. "This tool is a way to engage the teenager and ask them questions, ask them to give their opinion," Dr. Larson continued. "It's a great opportunity to make sure the child has self-determination."

Learn more about the latest breakthroughs in scoliosis care in this episode of Tomorrow's Cure. For more episodes and featured experts, visit tomorrowscure.com. 

Related Articles:

• Vertebral body tethering: Another option for treating scoliosis in children
• New Surgery for Scoliosis Keeps Teen Agile and Active
• Scoliosis Surgery Preserves Teen's Mobility, Boosts Self-Esteem
• Mayo Clinic Q and A: Do children with mild scoliosis need treatment?

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In April 2023, CV Rao had just returned from a work trip in Europe when he started experiencing abdominal pain on his right side. His wife, a doctor, recognized that he needed to see his primary care physician for an ultrasound scan. 

When the ultrasound didn't show anything, CV's care team ordered a CT scan. The results were alarming — a 7 centimeter tumor, the size of a large peach, was in his liver. 

"It was a shock to the system," CV recalls. 

The initial diagnosis suggested intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, a rare and aggressive cancer of the bile ducts.

CV quickly received a PET scan, an MRI and a biopsy at a local hospital which confirmed those suspicions. Within eight days, CV was undergoing chemotherapy to shrink the tumor so he might be eligible for surgery.

After six cycles of chemotherapy, the tumor was reevaluated. The good news was that the cancer was responsive to chemotherapy, and the tumor had shrunk by about 50%. Unfortunately, because the tumor surrounded major blood vessels, local surgeons still deemed it inoperable.

Seeking a second opinion

Determined to explore all options, CV sought a second opinion at Mayo Clinic. 

"I was working on 3D printing investments and kept running into Mayo's innovative approaches," he explains. "Everywhere I looked, they had this 3D printing effort where the surgeons were able to visualize what they were operating on using 3D printed organs."

This led him to believe that Mayo Clinic could offer a solution.

A new hope

Six months after diagnosis, CV and his wife, Madhavi, sat across from Harmeet Malhi, M.B.B.S., a hepatologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester.

"We want to give every patient every chance. Undergoing surgery was his best chance at being tumor-free."

Harmeet Malhi, M.B.B.S.

After reviewing his imaging and personalized treatment plan with Dr. Malhi, CV and his wife met with Patrick Starlinger, M.D., Ph.D., a hepatobiliary and pancreas surgeon. 

"Dr. Starlinger looked at me and said, 'You came to the right place. We can help you with this,'" CV remembers.

All three liver veins appeared to be involved. This type of tumor usually is not removable because there must be at least one vein to drain the liver, according to Dr. Starlinger.

"We told him to continue chemotherapy to maximize his response, aiming to get the tumor even smaller. And then we planned for advanced, complex liver surgery."

Patrick Starlinger, M.D.

Although CV understood this would be a high-risk procedure, he remembers feeling reassured after speaking with Dr. Starlinger.

"Dr. Starlinger looked at his fellows and said, 'Would you say this is routine?' And they all said 'Yes, it's a routine surgery for us,'" CV says.

As a native of Austria, Dr. Starlinger explains, "In German, we have a word that means saying 'yes' to life, 'lebensbejahend,' and that's how CV approached this. Both CV and his wife had such positive attitudes and a willingness to fight this with all they had."

CV believes the same can be said of Dr. Starlinger's approach to his case. 

"The very first day, Dr. Starlinger walked in with a positive attitude, which is one of the things that you realize you absolutely need to get through things like this," CV says.

Resecting the unresectable

CV's surgery was scheduled for November 22, 2023, the day before Thanksgiving. 

To prepare for the operation, Dr. Starlinger turned to a 3D printed model of CV's anatomy, just like the ones that had led CV to Mayo Clinic.

"3D models are incredibly helpful in complex surgical procedures because they allow for optimized surgical planning prior to the actual surgery," Dr. Starlinger explains.

At 6 a.m. on Nov. 22, CV was taken back to the operating room for the complex, 4.5-hour surgery. 

"We carefully dissected through the liver until we approached the right hepatic vein, which was really the critical portion of CV's operation," Dr. Starlinger says. "We had everything prepared to reimplant the only remaining liver vein, but with meticulous precision, using an ultrasound dissection device, we were ultimately able to peel the tumor off the majority of the right hepatic vein and perform a primary repair of the vessel."

Dr. Starlinger and the surgical team removed roughly 50% of CV's liver, along with the entire tumor. The surgery was a success.

Experiencing cherished milestones

Nearly two years after his diagnosis, CV is returning to the activities he loved. He has resumed skiing, attended his younger son's robotics competitions, and even traveled to Switzerland and Austria with his wife. 

"I can't wait to see my older son graduate and drop him off at college," he shares with a smile. "We are in a stage of life where a lot of life events are happening. It's amazing to do these things that are important to the family."

These moments, once clouded by uncertainty, are now cherished milestones.

Reflecting on his care at Mayo Clinic, CV expresses deep gratitude to the team that provided him with expert and compassionate treatment. 

"The Mayo Clinic staff is beyond what we've experienced elsewhere," he says. "During my seven days in the hospital, we interacted with many nurses, and through changes in shifts, it was just a uniformly amazing experience. Every, every single person we came in touch with was such a positive experience."

"We wish Dr. Starlinger the longest career possible because the number of lives he has and will save is incredible," he says. 

Related post:

• (VIDEO) A rare cancer. A rare weapon. Curtis Jackson’s inspiring story of survival

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For many cancer patients, treatment can be an isolating and overwhelming journey — marked by fear, fatigue and the constant burden of travel. But what if chemotherapy could be delivered at home? In this episode, we explore the movement to bring cancer care into the comfort of patients' homes. Could this shift not only ease the experience but also improve outcomes?

This week's episode of Tomorrow’s Cure features insights from Dr. Roxana Dronca, hematologist, oncologist and director of Mayo Clinic in Florida Comprehensive Cancer Center; and Dr. Arif Kamal, chief patient officer for the American Cancer Society. 

According to the American Cancer Society, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with cancer every 15 seconds. That staggering statistic drives the urgent push for more patient-centered, accessible care models. But what does that look like in practice?

For Dr. Dronca, this mission is personal — her daughter's cancer diagnosis revealed just how taxing traditional care can be. Out of that experience came a passionate commitment to transform how and where cancer care is delivered.

"I think cancer care, part of the scariness of it is how unknown it is, how unfamiliar it is in its approach," said Dr. Kamal. "But what if we could soften it by making components of it actually feel as normal as we can?"

Mayo Clinic's response: Cancer CARE (Connected Access and Remote Expertise) Beyond Walls, a new model offering expert care outside of hospital walls. The initiative minimizes travel and maximizes access by combining in-home services with a Mayo Clinic-based command center staffed by advanced practice providers, nurses and hospitalists. This team remotely coordinates care, ensuring seamless integration with each patient's medical history.

"I see that there is no choice every time I speak about Cancer CARE Beyond Walls," stated Dr. Dronca. 

In today's world, "Patients live longer, they need more treatments and we have more cancer diagnoses. We're really being outpaced in our ability to offer treatment to everyone in our physical spaces. So, we either think creatively and design a system where we can get care to more patients and also make the care more patient-friendly, or we build more chemotherapy units."

At-home cancer care isn't just a vision — it's happening now. Join us as we explore this transformative approach to care and what it means for the future of oncology. Listen to the latest episode of Tomorrow's Cure to learn more. 

Related Articles:

• Is home-based treatment the future of cancer care?
• Transforming cancer care with treatments at home 

The post Tomorrow’s Cure: The future of cancer care is at home appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Skin allergies are common and often frustrating to diagnose. But new technology could soon help change that.

Dr. Alison Bruce, a dermatologist at Mayo Clinic, is aiding the development of an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tool to support allergy patch testing. The tool is being designed to help patients self-apply test patches and use their smartphones to capture images over time, with technology offering guidance that could assist clinicians in diagnosis. It's a promising step toward faster, easier and more accessible skin allergy care, especially for people in rural areas or those with limited access to specialists. 

Watch: The future of skin allergy testing

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (1:56) is in the downloads at the end of this post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.

Itchy skin. Swollen patches. A red, angry rash. Skin allergies impact nearly 1 in 5 people.

"That is when a substance comes into contact with the skin and causes a reaction," says Dr. Bruce.

You may think of poison ivy triggering a reaction, but jewelry, fragrances, lotions and many more substances can cause a skin reaction known as contact dermatitis.

"What happens is the skin just turns red, itchy, flaky, scaly, kind of sometimes becomes fissured, if it's very severe, kind of becomes so red and inflamed that the skin breaks down and you get little cracks and crevices in the skin," Dr. Bruce says.

A new tool in development at Mayo Clinic aims to help patients and their healthcare team determine the cause of the reaction. 

"We've been working on an AI tool to help with skin allergy testing because in current state, if you suspect that, as a patient or your doctor suspects that, you have allergic contact dermatitis, the way to test for that would be through patch testing," she says.

But testing can be time-consuming, requiring patients to return to the dermatologist's office multiple times.

"The idea behind having AI enhance what we're doing is, if you can imagine a situation where instead of going into your dermatologist, you were able to put the patches on your skin yourself, remove them at a predetermined time and then use your cellphone, use the camera on your cellphone, to image those reactions, and then AI would be potentially able to interpret the reactions to: 'Yes, there's a red reaction that corresponds to nickel, and, therefore, you're allergic to nickel,'" says Dr. Bruce.

She says the new tool can improve the lives of those having skin reactions by making diagnosis more accessible and faster for patients. 

"It can be done remotely. It can be done with imaging, AI interpretation, etc. It really broadens the reach of people who need care that can't always make it to places like Mayo Clinic," she adds.

Related posts:

• Tomorrow’s Cure: How AI enhances skin allergy testing
• Mayo Clinic Minute: Atopic dermatitis triggers and treatment

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In this week’s Tomorrow’s Cure episode, explore a revolutionary frontier in medicine: the ability to predict disease before symptoms even manifest. Listen to experts at the forefront of medical research who are leveraging cutting-edge technology to potentially make diseases like cancer a thing of the past. 

The podcast episode features insights from Dr. Vijay Shah, Kinney Executive Dean of Research at Mayo Clinic; Heidi Dieter, Chief Research Officer at Mayo Clinic and Dwight Diercks, Senior Vice President of Nvidia. Together, they share insights on how predictive medicine could transform healthcare, allowing intervention before illness takes hold.

Until now, most patients have been treated the same—despite the uniqueness of each individual. Experts believe there’s a better path forward. 

"The problem with guidelines is they treat everybody the same and in fact, all of us are different, and we have different risks for different types of diseases," said Dr. Shah. "Technologies today allow us to integrate multiomics, which is your gene profile, RNA profile, protein profile, and integrate that with the exposures that you have every day.” 

He continued, "That’s why it's been so hard to predict disease because we have not been able to truly integrate these different types of environmental and genetic factors to make a personalized prediction for one's health."

Now, researchers are overcoming these challenges using innovative technologies. Experts are using artificial intelligence to move closer to predicting—and potentially preventing—serious diseases before they develop.

"The data and AI that we're using is light years ahead of what we knew six months ago. It is iterating so rapidly, it's hard to keep up with it,” said Dieter. “So, when it takes 17-years to go from a discovery in a lab to a treatment for a patient, and that 17-year curve has not changed in decades. Data and AI is going to rapidly accelerate it."

And when treatment is necessary, providing individualized treatment is important to improve patient outcomes. While there’s still work to be done, this is the future experts are striving to build. 

"Everybody is different. Every cancer type is different and unique in each individual, said Dwight. “So, figuring out how to apply a cure needs to be different going forward, and it can be with the tools that AI brings to doctors."

The potential of this technology is transformative—reshaping care models to be more personalized, data-driven, and effective. Listen to the latest episode of Tomorrow’s Cure to learn more. Explore past episodes and featured experts at tomorrowscure.com.

The post Tomorrow’s Cure: Predicting disease with the power of data appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — An artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by Mayo Clinic and Ultromics, Ltd., an AI echocardiography company based in Oxford, England, is highly accurate in screening for cardiac amyloidosis, a rare and progressive type of heart failure, according to a new study. The model is the first and only AI tool of its kind.

Researchers from Mayo Clinic and Ultromics, with investigators at the University of Chicago Medicine and collaborators around the world, validated and tested the model on a large and multiethnic patient population and compared its abilities to other diagnostic methods for cardiac amyloidosis.

Their findings, published in the European Heart Journal, show that the AI model was highly accurate, with 85% sensitivity (correctly identifying those with the disease) and 93% specificity (correctly identifying those without the disease). Using a single echocardiography videoclip, the model was effective across all major types of cardiac amyloidosis and distinguished it from other conditions with similar characteristics.

Cardiac amyloidosis is a life-threatening condition where an abnormal protein, called amyloid, builds up in the heart, causing it to stiffen and not work properly. It is often missed because the symptoms and imaging features can be similar to other heart conditions. However, early diagnosis is crucial because new drug therapies are now available that can slow or stop the disease's progression.

This work builds on the previous experience of Mayo Clinic and Ultromics in developing an AI echocardiography model to detect heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), which received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in 2022. HFpEF is a common type of heart failure, associated with high morbidity and mortality, but can be challenging to diagnose. An estimated 15% of patients with HFpEF have cardiac amyloidosis.

"This AI model is a breakthrough tool that can help us identify patients earlier so they can receive the treatment they need," says Patricia Pellikka, M.D., a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic and past director of the Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Lab in Rochester. "We found that AI performed better than traditional clinical and transthoracic echo-based screening methods, providing clinicians with stronger insights on which to base decisions for further confirmation tests. New treatments are available for cardiac amyloidosis but are most effective if administered early in the course of the disease." Dr. Pellikka is senior author of the study.

The amyloid AI model is FDA-cleared and is currently being used at multiple centers in the U.S. Dr. Pellikka says she looks forward to applying this technology in the clinical practice at Mayo Clinic.

This study was partially supported by a grant from Ultromics and Dr. Pellikka is supported as the Betty Knight Scripps-George M. Gura, Jr., M.D. Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases Clinical Research at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic has a financial interest in this technology and will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education and research.

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About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news.

Media contact:

• Terri Malloy, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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