ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic research identified a powerful new way to improve the prediction of a patient's long-term cardiovascular disease risk by enhancing a routinely performed imaging test with artificial intelligence (AI). Heart disease develops over time and remains the leading cause of death worldwide, so identifying risk early is critical to preventing heart attack, stroke and other serious outcomes.

The study highlights the growing role of AI in helping experts uncover new insights from existing medical data. Findings were presented at the 2026 American College of Cardiology Scientific Session with simultaneous publication in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

The study followed nearly 12,000 adults for approximately 16 years. Investigators applied AI to participants' standard coronary artery calcium scans to measure fat surrounding the heart. They compared the predictive value of this measurement with and in combination with two standard risk assessment approaches: the American Heart Association PREVENT equation, which incorporates traditional factors such as age, sex, blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes and other variables, and the coronary artery calcium score, which measures calcified plaque in coronary arteries.

The findings show that the volume of heart fat could be used independently to predict cardiovascular events. It significantly improved the overall accuracy of long-term risk prediction when combined with the coronary artery calcium score and the PREVENT equation, especially among patients in low-risk categories.

"Pericardial fat has been recognized as a marker of cardiovascular risk, but this study shows how we can now measure it automatically and use it to meaningfully improve risk prediction, especially in patients at borderline or intermediate risk where clinical decisions are often less clear," says Zahra Esmaeili, first author and researcher in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic. "This opens the door to more personalized prevention strategies."

Key findings:

• Nearly 10% of participants developed cardiovascular disease during follow-up.
• Higher fat volume around the heart was independently associated with increased risk of cardiovascular events, even after accounting for traditional risk factors and coronary calcium scores.
• Participants with the highest coronary fat volume had elevated risk across all coronary calcium levels.
• Adding coronary fat measurements improved the accuracy of predicting cardiovascular events beyond established models.

Coronary artery calcium scoring is widely used to assess cardiovascular risk. This study shows that additional information can be extracted from the same scan without extra testing or cost.

"Because this measurement comes from imaging that many patients are already receiving, it represents a practical and scalable way to enhance cardiovascular risk assessment," says senior author Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, M.D., a preventive cardiologist and co-director of the AI in Cardiology program at Mayo Clinic. "It could help clinicians intervene earlier and more effectively."

Researchers note that further studies will help determine how best to incorporate coronary fat measurement into routine clinical care and whether it can guide treatment decisions.

The manuscript, Deep Learning–Derived Pericardial Adipose Tissue by ECG-Gated Computed Tomography Predicts Cardiovascular Events Beyond Coronary Calcium, and a complete list of authors is published in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

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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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COPD is a long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe after airways become inflamed and narrowed and mucus builds up. COPD can also make sleeping more difficult, affecting a patient's energy levels and overall health. These factors can influence participation in pulmonary rehabilitation, which includes a combination of exercise, education and support.

Researchers set out to understand whether a patient's sleep quality could help predict their level of participation in remote rehabilitation activities.

"As a scientist and engineer, I wanted to explore how wearable data could improve the drop-out rates of remote pulmonary rehabilitation programs. By better understanding a patient's day-to-day life, we can make more personalized and potentially more effective care plan recommendations," says Stephanie Zawada, Ph.D., M.S., a Mayo Clinic research associate and first author of the study. Dr. Zawada is committed to finding ways to use data to personalize care through her work on the team at the Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery.

In the study, researchers found that using baseline sleep data from a wrist activity monitor, combined with machine learning and traditional clinical indicators, improved the prediction of how consistently patients would participate in a 12-week home pulmonary rehabilitation program.

The team analyzed already collected sleep measures, as part of a large study aimed to test a home-based program of pulmonary rehabilitation led by Roberto Benzo, M.D., M.S., and the Mindful Breathing Laboratory. Investigators generated a Composite Sleep Health Score before the home-based pulmonary rehabilitation began. At the end of the 12-week program, analysis showed that including the health score improved prediction of patient engagement over the study period.

This information can help clinicians better tailor rehabilitation programs and identify patients who may benefit from additional support. It also may inform the design of future remote-care programs.

"Adding wearable data provides a more comprehensive view of a patient's daily pattern," says Emma Fortune Ngufor, Ph.D., senior author of the study and a Mayo Clinic researcher in the Kern Center. She noted that sleep data is one of several inputs that can help inform care decisions, alongside clinical assessments and patient-reported information.

Researchers note that additional investigation is needed to validate and refine the model in broader patient populations before broader clinical application.

For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.

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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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Innovation in healthcare begins with curiosity — and with caregivers who are trained to ask better questions. At Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education (MCSGME), the Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Academy helps residents and fellows build an entrepreneurial mindset by integrating hands‑on innovation, collaboration and problem‑solving directly into their training.

That spirit was on full display during Platform Experience Day on Dec. 18, where trainees explored real‑world scenarios on Mayo Clinic Platform to see how de‑identified, large‑scale data can inform clinical decisions, accelerate research and spark innovation in everyday practice.Experiences like this — hallmarks of the CIE program — foster leadership skills in trainees, accelerating their ability to affect meaningful change in the practice. 

Watch to learn more about how MCSGME is leveraging today's data‑driven, technology‑enabled learning environment for its trainees. 

Hands-on exploration meets real-world questions

During the immersive experience, trainees rotated through case studies and brainstorming exercises, then tested their own questions on the Platform. They learned to define cohorts, explore associations, check feasibility and examine population‑level outcomes such as hospitalizations and emergency department visits. These kinds of early indicators emerge when exploring data through Mayo Clinic Platform, one of the largest sets of de-identified healthcare data in the world.

One team explored how often patients completed their pre‑appointment lab work before seeing an endocrinologist. Using Platform, they quickly created "case" and "control" groups based on whether labs were completed before or after the visit. From there, they could easily compare the number of consults in each group, see who referred patients and understand why patients were being sent to Endocrinology in the first place. The process showed how helpful Platform can be for answering practical clinical questions without the burden of manual chart review.

"Participating in this experience significantly reinforced my belief that digital health and data-driven medicine are not simply future concepts, but essential components of modern clinical care," says Leticia Sandoval, M.D., a participant in the CIE Academy. "It highlighted how much high-quality data we already generate — across labs, imaging, genomics and clinical documentation — and how transformative it can be when those data are meaningfully integrated rather than siloed."

Creating superusers who accelerate progress

Residents and fellows who participated in Platform Experience Day are becoming "superusers" who can serve as go‑to resources in their departments. CIE created guidance for GME leaders on how Platform-trained learners can support innovation within their departments, leveraging the trainees' new expertise when program directors may not have had the time to dive into the Platform as much as the trainees did.

"If trainees know the pathway and have baseline experience, they can jump two or three steps ahead," says Rena Hale, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneurship program. "They're not stuck asking, 'What is this? 'They're already applying it to real problems."

During the event, trainees used the basic version of Mayo Clinic Platform to explore their own questions and get a sense of what the tool can reveal. They gained a clear understanding of how to incorporate the Platform into future work, and they also learned that the full version can provide deeper insights with the right guidance.

"Going into the session, I had only a general sense of what the Platform could do," says Evan Wilder, M.D., a fourth‑year gastroenterology fellow at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and a trainee in the CIE Academy. "Getting to use it firsthand showed me how powerful it is for looking at large groups of patients and spotting patterns you wouldn't see otherwise."

Building confidence that benefits the institution

As more residents and fellows show interest in hands‑on innovation, Mayo Clinic continues to expand opportunities like these across the organization. The ongoing partnership between MCSGME and Mayo Clinic Platform will create even more ways for trainees to explore real‑world questions and build skills that shape their future careers 

CIE is also a part of a growing MCSGME initiative to build additional long-term experiences designed to help trainees shape and differentiate their careers. Similar to CIE, these academies — such as the Clinician Educator Academy and the Resident Leadership Academy — offer structured, yearlong experiences that support professional growth and open doors to new paths within the practice 

Ultimately, says Dr. Hale, Platform Experience Day is about confidence. It equips learners to ask better questions, choose the right tools and move with purpose. "No one walks out a master," she says, "but they do leave with knowledge, experience and the ability to act. That speed and clarity are difference makers for our trainees and for Mayo Clinic."

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Amir Lerman, M.D., a cardiovascular physician-scientist, mentor, research leader and active Mayo Clinic staff member, passed away Feb. 23 at age 69. During his nearly 40 years at Mayo Clinic, he became one of the world’s foremost authorities on microvascular function and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Lerman earned his doctor of science degree and M.D. in Israel before joining Mayo Clinic in 1987 as a resident. His research reshaped the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of vascular injury and ischemic heart disease. Focusing on early detection, he and his teams developed novel diagnostic tests, imaging and regenerative therapies to treat and cure patients with these conditions around the world.

Distinguished career of innovation

Dr. Lerman established essential cardiovascular infrastructure at Mayo, including the Mayo Clinic Cardiovascular Research Center and coronary physiology and imaging, among many others. Under his direction, the Mayo Clinic Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory pioneered in vivo testing protocols for endothelial and microvascular function that became best practices worldwide.

A Barbara Woodward Lips Professor of Medicine, Dr. Lerman authored nearly 1,000 peer-reviewed publications that have been cited more than 69,000 times, making him among the most influential cardiovascular investigators in the world. He served as vice chair for research in the Mayo Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Medicine from 2012 to 2024, held several patents and maintained continuous National Institutes of Health funding along with support from the American Heart Association and many other sources.

In 2023, Dr. Lerman was part of the Mayo AI-ECG team, which applies artificial intelligence to electrocardiogram workflows, that received the Mayo Clinic Research shield's Team Science Award for pioneering the use of deep neural networks to detect cardiovascular disease from standard electrocardiograms. In 2024, he was named a Distinguished Mayo Clinic Investigator — Mayo Clinic's highest honor for researchers, recognizing sustained scholarship, creative achievement and excellence in leadership and mentorship.

Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees and Board of Governors member Charanjit Rihal, M.D., a cardiovascular medicine consultant, nominated Dr. Lerman for the award. "It is remarkable that people from numerous countries flock to his laboratory; it takes a special individual to bridge potential geopolitical divides in the interest of our patients, science, mentees and Mayo Clinic," Dr. Rihal wrote in his 2024 nomination letter.

Dr. Rihal says Dr. Lerman's loss will be felt not only among his colleagues, patients and the Mayo Clinic community, but by the field of cardiovascular research and treatment.

"Dr. Lerman touched so many lives in so many ways," Dr. Rihal says. "He fostered innovation through internal grants, AI initiatives, faculty development programs and novel models of philanthropic and corporate partnership. He led his mentees to leadership positions around the world, particularly in his native Israel, encouraging them to keep their focus always on the patients whose lives they could improve."

Values and an enduring legacy

Paul Friedman, M.D., chair of the Mayo Clinic Department of Cardiology, says Dr. Lerman embodied Mayo Clinic’s values in his daily work and in his relationships with patients, trainees and peers.

"Dr. Lerman was an exceptional physician, scientist, leader, builder, innovator and creative thinker. The programs he built, the science he advanced and the leaders he inspired stand as a durable legacy," says Dr. Friedman. "Through those he mentored and the patients who benefit from his discoveries, Dr. Lerman’s influence on cardiovascular medicine will endure for generations."

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate has announced its latest cohort, welcoming 18 national and international healthcare technology companies that are creating cutting-edge digital solutions to advance health innovation.

Through the Accelerate program, these companies will participate in an immersive, 30-week program that offers access to expert mentors, industry-leading technologies and millions of de-identified, longitudinal clinical records to develop and validate artificial intelligence (AI)-driven healthcare solutions.

"The future of healthcare depends on clinical insight and technology advancing together," says John Halamka, M.D., Dwight and Dian Diercks President of Mayo Clinic Platform. "Accelerate brings entrepreneurs together with Mayo Clinic clinicians and other leading experts to turn bold ideas into practical solutions that can truly improve how care is delivered. It's one more way we're responsibly advancing AI to benefit patients around the world."

The 18 companies participating in the new cohort are working to address complex healthcare challenges. The cohort includes:

• 100ms builds AI agents that automate patient access workflows for specialty practices, including gastroenterology, allergy/immunology and neurology.
• NousLogic Telehealth provides WFH: Wellness from Home, a remote elderly patient monitoring platform that tracks vital signs and real-time medication adherence, including AI-based medication dispensing. 
• MyBackHub is an AI-powered digital health platform that delivers personalized, nonoperative back pain care using AI to triage patients and guide treatment and care coordination.
• Cura AI builds a patient context graph that unifies fragmented patient data into a portable, patient-owned record, enabling conversational AI to support early-risk detection and preventive care.
• SPRYT developsAsa, an AI medical receptionist that empowers patients to book, change and pay for medical appointments via text or instant messaging in their preferred language.
• NeoCure Inc. is developing an AI solution that analyzes bedside vital data to enable timely, specialist-free detection of an eye disease affecting preterm infants.
• Xcoo provides Chrovis, an AI-powered service that supports genomic cancer diagnosis and treatment decisions with clinician-ready insights and patient-friendly reports.
• YOBO Health offers a care coordination platform designed to help prevent hospital readmissions among patients with cardio-renal-metabolic conditions.
• Canary Applied Intelligence delivers a patient-centric AI platform for cardio-renal care that identifies high-risk patients early and enables proactive, data-driven interventions across the care journey.
• Curenetics is a U.K.-based AI-driven health technology company that predicts individual patient response to cancer immunotherapy by integrating clinical, genomic and imaging data.
• Bluevia Health is an applied AI platform that analyzes multimodal clinical data to detect postoperative deterioration earlier, helping health systems identify complications sooner and improve surgical outcomes.
• Precision Imaging Inc. is a Tokyo-based medtech startup specializing in AI-powered intraoperative navigation that uses computer vision to deliver cost-effective, high-precision guidance for orthopedic surgery, starting with total hip arthroplasty.
• Avedian provides the Compass Decision Support platform, delivering operational insights that help health systems improve efficiency, performance and capacity planning.
• Hoopcare reduces surgical risk and improves operating room efficiency by automating preoperative evaluation and predicting postoperative complications with AI.
• Hera is an AI-powered male fertility platform that combines testing with predictive analytics to deliver personalized sperm health insights for patients, clinics and fertility programs.
• EW2Health is a digital health platform that uses predictive behavioral analytics to support GLP-1–based obesity care by forecasting weight trends and enabling proactive, personalized interventions to improve adherence and long-term metabolic health.
• Ecotone AI applies frontier AI and full-genome analysis to uncover disease-driving genetic mechanisms and accelerate precision therapies for rare diseases at scale.
• OneMedic is a Vietnam-based health tech company using an AI-driven ecosystem to enable early detection and proactive management of chronic disease through integrated, patient-centered care in a primary care setting.

"The innovation we're seeing in this February cohort is a testament to the accelerating pace of AI in medicine," says Jamie Sundsbak, director of the Accelerate program. "We are proud to support these 18 companies as they transition from revolutionary concepts to scalable solutions that can help define the next decade of healthcare."

The Accelerate program offers multiple ways to participate through a 30-week immersive program or a multiyear engagement pathway.

To learn more about the program or to apply for an upcoming cohort, visit Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate.

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About Mayo Clinic Platform  
Founded on Mayo Clinic's dedication to patient-centered care, Mayo Clinic Platform enables new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies through collaborations with health technology innovators to create a healthier world. To learn more, visit Mayo Clinic Platform. 

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:

• Caroline Auger, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — In 2025, Mayo Clinic advanced cures, accelerated diagnoses and expanded access to care through its Bold. Forward. strategy, introducing hundreds of innovations to better serve patients worldwide.

"Guided by our primary value of putting the needs of our patients first, 2025 was another strong year for Mayo Clinic," said Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO. "Through our Bold. Forward. strategy, we delivered new capabilities that meaningfully improved patients’ lives and positioned us to accelerate patient-centered transformation in the year ahead."

Digital innovation and Mayo Clinic Platform

Data-powered innovations and strategic collaborations helped identify diagnoses earlier and enabled new therapies to reach patients faster. In 2025, Mayo Clinic integrated 22 Mayo Clinic Platform-driven solutions into clinical practice, enhancing AI-enabled care and streamlining workflows. For example, the PSA Control Tower supports earlier detection of prostate cancer recurrence. Also, researchers can now analyze data from thousands of glioblastoma patients in minutes rather than years.

At the same time, Mayo Clinic Platform expanded its global reach through Mayo Clinic Platform_Orchestrate, which helps biopharma and medical device companies accelerate clinical development to get patients therapies faster, and Mayo Clinic Platform_Insights, which gives healthcare organizations worldwide access to Mayo Clinic expertise and data-driven insights to overcome barriers to the responsible implementation of AI solutions.

Innovation is strongest when shaped by those closest to patients. In 2025, a multidisciplinary team led by the Department of Nursing at Mayo Clinic developed the AI-powered Nurse Virtual Assistant, created by nurses for nurses. This solution delivers patient summaries and direct links to evidence-based resources, giving nurses more time to focus on care.

These digital advances also contributed to expanded access and new collaborations. Outpatient digital visits increased 17% to 1.2 million compared to 2024. Additionally, nearly 300 technologies were licensed, and close to 200 new agreements were signed across biopharma, diagnostics and AI, expanding access to Mayo Clinic knowledge worldwide.

Accelerating research and discovery

Clinical trial activity increased 20% over 2024, with activation times cut in half for one-third of studies. Virtual trial models expanded participation and accelerated results, allowing promising therapies to reach patients faster. Researchers also advanced work in heart failure, kidney disease, Alzheimer’s disease and breast cancer, using data-driven tools to predict, prevent and treat complex diseases earlier and more precisely.

Excellence in patient care

These advances translated directly into care delivery. Mayo Clinic cared for patients from every state and more than 140 countries, including 161,590 surgical patients, an increase of more than 4% from 2024. Additionally, Mayo Clinic performed 2,065 solid-organ transplants, the most in the nation. Teams introduced 149 new surgeries and procedures and delivered more than 26 million diagnostic tests, including 100 new tests.

This commitment to excellence continued to earn national and global recognition. In 2025, Mayo Clinic was named World’s Best Hospital for the seventh consecutive year and World’s Best Smart Hospital by Newsweek. U.S. News & World Report ranked Mayo Clinic in the top three in more specialties than any other hospital for 36 straight years.

Workforce expansion

Behind this progress was continued growth in Mayo Clinic’s workforce. The organization welcomed more than 12,400 new colleagues in 2025, bringing total staff to nearly 85,000, and educated more than 5,000 students and trainees across the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

"The work of Mayo Clinic begins and ends with our people," said Christina Zorn, chief administrative officer. "Across every role and every campus, our staff bring extraordinary skill, compassion and teamwork to patients each day. Their commitment to one another and to those we serve is what turns our strategy into action and makes our mission possible."

Building the future of healthcare: Bold. Forward. Unbound.

Investment in the future of care continued through Bold. Forward. Unbound., the $9 billion investment integrating advanced digital capabilities with modern clinical environments. Construction progressed in Rochester, including expanded proton beam therapy capacity. In Arizona, Mayo Clinic announced a major transformation of its Phoenix campus. In Florida, a new five-floor patient tower added 166 beds, and the Duan Family Building opened, bringing advanced photon and proton therapy, and the first carbon ion therapy program being built in the Americas. Mayo Clinic Health System also broke ground on a new hospital in Sparta, Wisconsin, strengthening care in rural communities.

Reflecting strong confidence in Mayo Clinic’s mission and impact, philanthropic support reached $1.47 billion in 2025, and Mayo Clinic generated $473 million in operating income, a 2.3% margin.

"Mayo Clinic exists for one reason only, to help patients," said Dr. Farrugia. "In 2025, we were able to help more people in new ways than ever before, and we will continue striving to bring even more hope and healing in 2026."

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Newsweek named Mayo Clinic the No. 1 hospital in its annual list of the "World's Best Hospitals" for the eighth consecutive year. The rankings were released on Wednesday, Feb. 25.

Newsweek has named Mayo Clinic the No. 1 hospital in the world for the eighth straight year in its 2026 World’s Best Hospitals list.  

"This recognition is a result of the extraordinary expertise, compassion and commitment of our staff, all working together to transform healthcare and find more cures for the benefit of people everywhere," says Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO of Mayo Clinic. "Over the past year, we accelerated that transformation by responsibly integrating data, technology and AI into patient care."

The annual Newsweek rankings are based on patient survey results; an international survey of more than 85,000 healthcare professionals; key performance metrics, such as patient safety and quality of care; and implementation of patient-reported outcomes.

Through its Bold. Forward. strategy, Mayo Clinic is reimagining healthcare to ensure patients everywhere receive better answers and better outcomes. By combining deep clinical expertise with responsible digital innovation, the organization is transforming how care is delivered. Central to this effort is Mayo Clinic Platform, which drives the development, validation and deployment of AI in real-world clinical settings with partners across four continents.

See the full "World's Best Hospitals" list.

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This episode of "Tomorrow's Cure" explores the dramatic changes happening in pediatric care thanks to whole genome sequencing. Hear from Whitney Thompson, M.D., assistant professor of medical genetics and pediatrics at Mayo Clinic, Stephen Kingsmore, M.D. president and CEO of Rady Children's Institute for Genomic Medicine, and Sean George, CEO of Inflection Medicine, as they discuss the life-changing feeling of identifying rare genetic diseases and giving patients a precise diagnosis. 

In the recent past, a step-by-step approach once meant going through one genetic test and getting no answer, then another. This model was how testing started. Dr. Thompson explains the significant changes in practice in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in the last five years. 

"We send what we call "rapid whole genome sequencing," one comprehensive rapid test that can look at ... all the genes that we know currently to cause disease and hopefully find an answer for families," she says. 

The Human Genome project has helped change the standard of care. Dr. Thompson says questioning if there's a genetic disease at play becomes the first lens of treatment, a new paradigm in the NICU. With this mindset, physicians can order a rapid genome test to get instant answers. 

This episode also explores how AI has helped researchers continue to read and understand the genomic map. As researchers find success in genomic treatments and testing, the next step is finding ways to scale these solutions. Currently, cases are treated on an individual basis as custom therapies are developed. 

The trio also discusses how these projects aren't restricted to babies. All humans have their genome throughout their entire lives, and new insights can appear at every stage of life. As teams begin to prove the cost-effectiveness of a rapid genome test over other "diagnostic odysseys," policy is starting to follow. The team discusses how California and other states are applying this paradigm to Medicaid patients because not only do physicians get a result so much faster, but the process is more cost-effective. 

The researchers talk with host Cathy Wurzer about where genomic testing and treatments are headed and what it will take to achieve these insights at scale.

Listen to the latest episode of "Tomorrow's Cure" wherever you get your podcasts. You can explore the full library of episodes and guests on the show's page.  

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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic announced today that researchers and solutions developers now have access to decades of high-level, de-identified data from Mercy through Mayo Clinic Platform's secure, privacy-preserving infrastructure. Mercy, one of the 15 largest health systems in the U.S., has 55 acute care and specialty hospitals in both urban and rural communities in the Midwest.

Through Mayo Clinic Platform, researchers, data scientists and innovators can now analyze larger, more diverse patient populations from both Mayo Clinic and Mercy to explore new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent diseases. This expanded data set enhances research by reducing demographic bias that can occur with single-institution data, and it supports more representative research studies.

With this data collaboration, Mayo Clinic Platform now provides visibility into de-identified data from more than 15.2 million patients, including:

• 12.6 billion images
• 3.2 billion lab test results
• 10.1 million pathology reports
• 1.65 billion clinical notes

"This collaboration opens the door to insights no single health system could achieve alone and reflects Mayo Clinic's commitment to transforming the future of healthcare," says John Halamka, M.D., Dwight and Dian Diercks President, Mayo Clinic Platform. "This work is designed to drive innovation in healthcare by accelerating research and enabling the creation of new solutions that transform future clinical practice."

Using Mayo Clinic Platform's secure capabilities, each organization retains full control of its own information. No data is transferred or moved.

"This joint effort will transform healthcare to predict illness earlier, improve outcomes, shorten hospital stays, and deliver more proactive, patient-centered care that ultimately saves lives," says Gavin Helton, M.D., Mercy's president of primary care.

This collaboration is part of a 10-year agreement between Mercy and Mayo Clinic to transform healthcare. By adding insights from more diverse patient populations, the two organizations have taken a significant step forward in accelerating research and supporting future advances in patient care.

Mercy is a founding member of Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect, a first-of-its-kind global health data network that links healthcare innovators and provides access to clean, curated and de-identified data sets—enabling richer insights, faster decisions and more equitable patient care.

Through Connect, Mayo Clinic is also collaborating with other leading healthcare organizations worldwide. Access to additional de-identified patient data from these healthcare organizations is expected to become available through Mayo Clinic Platform later this year.

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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.

About Mayo Clinic Platform
Founded on Mayo Clinic's dedication to patient-centered care, Mayo Clinic Platform enables new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies through collaborations with health technology innovators to create a healthier world. To learn more, visit Mayo Clinic Platform.

About Mercy
Mercy, one of the 15 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation's largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost. Mercy is a highly integrated, multistate healthcare system including 55 acute care and specialty (heart, children's, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 1,000 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 5,000 physicians and advanced practitioners, and more than 50,000 caregivers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. In fiscal year 2025 alone, Mercy provided more than half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits, including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid.

Media contacts:

• Caroline Auger, Mayo Clinic Platform Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
• Nancy Dixon, Mercy Communications, nancy.dixon@mercy.net

The post Mayo Clinic and Mercy advance collaboration to transform patient care appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Strategic collaboration brings together Mayo Clinic's extensive clinical insights, genomic data and Platform architecture with Merck's artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) research capabilities

RAHWAY, N.J., and ROCHESTER, Minn. — Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside of the U.S. and Canada, and Mayo Clinic, the world's top-ranked hospital system, today announced a research and development agreement to apply artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and multimodal clinical data to support drug discovery and development. The agreement integrates Mayo Clinic's Platform architecture as well as clinical and genomic datasets with Merck's ambition to harness AI-enabled virtual cell technologies to enhance disease understanding, improve target identification, and drive early development decisions.

By leveraging Mayo Clinic Platform, which brings together data from Mayo Clinic U.S. and its international partner network in a secure environment, Merck will integrate Mayo Clinic's clinical insights and genomic data sets, including AI and machine learning (ML)-enabled discovery spanning computational and spatial biology. The new Mayo Clinic Platform_Orchestrate program provides Merck direct access to Mayo Clinic's world-class clinical and scientific expertise, Platform data including de-identified clinical and multimodal data sets, registries and biorepositories, advanced AI tools and analytics, and the ability to scale solutions.

Under the agreement, which marks Mayo Clinic's first strategic collaboration of this scale with a global biopharmaceutical company, Merck will leverage Mayo Clinic's extensive multimodal data — including laboratory results, medical imaging, clinical notes and molecular data — to support validation of AI models and help translate research insights into discovery and development strategies.

“New cutting-edge technologies are enhancing our ability to innovate with the potential to bring important new therapies to patients faster. By working with Mayo Clinic, we aim to integrate high-quality clinical data and AI-enabled insights into discovery research to improve target identification, and ultimately, the probability of success for our programs," said Robert M. Davis, chairman and CEO, Merck.

“By combining Mayo Clinic Platform's de-identified data, clinical expertise and Platform technology with Merck's world-class research and development capabilities, we are poised to speed innovative breakthroughs to patients and redefine drug development," said Gianrico Farrugia, M.D., president and CEO, Mayo Clinic. "This collaboration represents a new present and future for healthcare — one where platform-based collaboration leads to more answers, more cures and better outcomes for patients worldwide."

The collaboration will initially focus on high-need therapeutic areas in three specialties where advanced analytics and multimodal approaches have the potential to advance progress in the development of more effective and tailored therapies:

• Gastroenterology — Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
• Dermatology — Atopic dermatitis
• Neurology — Multiple sclerosis

The collaboration builds on Merck's broader investments in AI/ML-enabled discovery, spanning computational or spatial biology, AI foundation models and real-world data, and reflects a shared focus on applying advanced technologies in ways that support disciplined, evidence-based drug development.

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About Merck
At Merck, known as MSD outside of the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than 130 years, we have brought hope to humanity through the development of important medicines and vaccines. We aspire to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company in the world — and today, we are at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions that advance the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals. We foster a diverse and inclusive global workforce and operate responsibly every day to enable a safe, sustainable and healthy future for all people and communities. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About Mayo Clinic  
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Forward-looking statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA
This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, N.J., USA (the "company") includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. There can be no guarantees with respect to pipeline candidates that the candidates will receive the necessary regulatory approvals or that they will prove to be commercially successful. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company's ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company's patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 and the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC's Internet site (www.sec.gov).

Media contacts:

• Dan Pierce, Mayo Clinic Communications, newsbureau@mayo.edu
• Eilyn Segura, Merck, 203-940-6259
• Toneisha Friday Smith, Merck, 609-455-6000

Investor contacts:

• Peter Dannenbaum, 732-594-1579
• Steven Graziano, 732-594-1583

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