ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic today unveiled separate groundbreaking collaborations with Microsoft Research and with Cerebras Systems in the field of generative artificial intelligence (AI), designed to personalize patient care, significantly accelerate diagnostic time and improve accuracy.

Announced during the 43^rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, the projects focus on developing and testing foundation models customized for various applications, leveraging the power of multimodal radiology images and data (including CT scans and MRIs) with Microsoft Research and genomic sequencing data with Cerebras. The innovations have the potential to transform how clinicians approach diagnosis and treatment, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes. 

Foundation AI models are large, pre-trained models capable of adapting to and carrying out many tasks with minimal extra training. They learn from massive datasets, acquiring general knowledge that can be used across diverse applications. This adaptability makes them efficient and versatile building blocks for numerous AI systems.

Mayo Clinic and Microsoft Research advance AI for chest X-rays

Mayo Clinic and Microsoft Research are collaboratively developing foundation models that integrate text and images. For this use case, Mayo and Microsoft Research are working together to explore the use of generative AI in radiology using Microsoft Research’s AI technology and Mayo Clinic’s X-ray data.

"Multimodal foundation models hold immense promise in tackling significant roadblocks across the radiology ecosystem. The innovations we’re creating with Microsoft Research will help unlock valuable insights for the future of medical imaging to improve how radiologists work and how patients are cared for," says Matthew Callstrom, M.D. Ph.D., chair of Mayo Clinic Radiology in the Midwest and medical director for Generative AI and Strategy. "Focusing on chest X-ray reports, Mayo's clinical teams and Microsoft researchers will collaborate to advance the state-of-the-art in multimodal AI radiology, helping bring innovation to real-world application faster and at scale, which is key to making exemplary healthcare more accessible." 

Empowering clinicians with instant access to the information they need is at the heart of this research project. Mayo Clinic aims to develop a model that can automatically generate reports, evaluate tube and line placement in chest X-rays, and detect changes from prior images. This proof-of-concept model seeks to improve clinician workflow and patient care by providing a more efficient and comprehensive analysis of radiographic images.

"This collaboration is a crucial step towards our mutual goal of developing generative AI that improves patient outcomes and the clinician experience," says Jonathan Carlson, Ph.D., managing director, Health Futures at Microsoft Research. "The fusion of Microsoft's recognized research innovations in biomedical AI and Mayo Clinic's radiology excellence will empower clinicians with the tools they need to deliver more precise and accessible care and furthers Microsoft’s commitment to bringing the power of emerging AI to clinical researchers worldwide."

Mayo Clinic and Cerebras create a world-leading genomic foundation model

Mayo Clinic and Cerebras have created a genomic foundation model that combines publicly available human reference genome data that represents an ideal version of the human genome, with Mayo's comprehensive patient exome data and the power of its Mayo Clinic Platform. Exome data focuses on the protein-coding region of the genome where several disease-causing mutations take place. Cerebras's high-powered computing and generative AI capabilities make it possible to train and develop the model at scale, positioning it to be further refined for more specific uses.

"The genomic foundation model represents a significant advancement in personalized medicine," says Dr. Callstrom. "Its ability to analyze genomic data and compare them in almost real-time with patients with similar traits allows for more precise prediction of disease and treatment response, leading to faster diagnoses and the selection of targeted therapies for patients."

For example, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a debilitating autoimmune disease, and the standard treatment approach often requires trials of different therapies to achieve disease remission. It can take several months to know if a therapy is working. A new genomic model developed by Mayo Clinic and Cerebras offers a potential solution to shorten the time to identify effective treatment and avoid long-term morbidity associated with the untreated disease. Early findings demonstrate high performance against benchmarks and show early promise in identifying patient response to therapy. As more patient data is added, the model's predictive power is expected to increase, leading to faster, more effective personalized treatment for RA patients.   

"Mayo’s genomic foundation model sets a new bar for genomic models, excelling not only in standard tasks like predicting functional and regulatory properties of DNA but also enabling discoveries of complex correlations between genetic variants and medical conditions," says Natalia Vassilieva, Field CTO at Cerebras Systems. "Unlike current approaches focused on single-variant associations, this model enables the discovery of connections where collections of variants contribute to a particular condition."

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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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ROCHESTER, Minn. — Against the backdrop of the 43^rd Annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Mayo Clinic announced the formation of Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology, designed on a platform architecture to boldly unlock the power of its extensive archive of digital slides to revolutionize pathology and accelerate medical breakthroughs.

Mayo Clinic's expertise, de-identified clinical data, and its Platform architecture, combined with technical expertise and resources of NVIDIA, a world leader in accelerated computing, is powering the ability to accelerate this transformation. In addition, to improve performance and scalability of generative AI in pathology, Mayo Clinic is collaborating with Aignostics, an industry leader in building artificial intelligence (AI) models for digital solutions in precision medicine in a way that mirrors its established approach to patient care. This collaborative, multidisciplinary effort leverages both medical and technological strengths, and the early achievements are promising.

"Mayo Clinic is reimagining what is possible in disease detection and prediction, both within its own system and globally. We are doing this by using large, diverse datasets to build powerful artificial intelligence models in pathology. This will make diagnoses faster, more accurate, and more efficient, improving treatment approaches and speeding new cures to patients," says Jim Rogers, CEO, Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology.

"AI-driven insights can accelerate diagnostics, enhance precision medicine and revolutionize patient care," said Kimberly Powell, VP of Healthcare and Life Sciences, NVIDIA. "By digitizing and harnessing the power of vast datasets through its Digital Pathology platform, powered by NVIDIA's accelerated computing, Mayo Clinic is helping pave the way for a future with faster medical breakthroughs, better treatments and improved outcomes for patients across the globe."

"Merging Mayo Clinic's data and expertise with our advanced machine learning capabilities will produce breakthrough foundation models and AI products that advance the field of precision medicine and meaningfully improve patient care," says Viktor Matyas, CEO of Aignostics.

The vast majority of pathology practices remain tethered to analog processes, hindering access to critical diagnostic data that could be used to expand diagnostics and treatments and speed the development of new therapies to benefit patients. To address this challenge, Mayo Clinic has moved quickly, investing in digitizing its pathology practice and by scanning its extensive archive of pathology slides, as well as prospectively scanning pathology slides from current patients. To date, Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology has leveraged 20 million digital slide images linked to 10 million patient records that incorporate treatments, medications, imaging, clinical notes, genomic data and more.

In less than two months, Mayo Clinic and Aignostics developed a leading foundation model built on 1.2 million deidentified slides from Mayo Clinic and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, findings of which were published in a paper on Jan. 9. Current efforts include developing and deploying new solutions enabled by this model. Future plans are focused on building new models, including one being trained on 5 million slides.   

The NVIDIA collaboration will create a first-in-class infrastructure for building and deploying foundation models to accelerate generative AI advances in pathology and beyond. With NVIDIA's healthcare-specific full stack computing architecture for artificial intelligence, NVIDIA Clara, Mayo Clinic is building models that will open new frontiers in medicine and lay the foundation for more personalized patient experiences.      

The development of Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology has been a planned process over many years. The pathology platform takes advantage of the portfolios of Mayo Clinic Platform, a global network that drives digital innovation around diagnosis, treatment and operational improvements worldwide, and Mayo Clinic Laboratories, which provides advanced testing and pathology services for healthcare organizations worldwide. Continuing its efforts to transform healthcare, Mayo Clinic is working with investors and data providers to continue building a pathology platform that spurs innovation and transforms the medical practice for the benefit of healthcare systems and patients worldwide.

"These new capabilities using digital pathology data will unlock this critically important clinical information for building AI solutions for advanced diagnosis and care of patients and that will improve the lives of patients globally," says Matthew Callstrom, M.D. Ph.D., chair of Mayo Clinic Radiology in the Midwest and medical director for Generative AI and Strategy.

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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

The post Mayo Clinic launches Mayo Clinic Digital Pathology to modernize pathology, speed medical breakthroughs appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A generous $20 million gift from Dwight and Dian Diercks will fuel key elements of Mayo Clinic’s vision for the future of healthcare, including Mayo Clinic Platform and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for early detection and intervention in cancer. In honor of their support, Mayo Clinic will establish the Dwight and Dian Diercks President, Mayo Clinic Platform, and create the Heidi Diercks Krause Fund in AI Innovation for Cancer, named in honor of Mr. Diercks’ late sister.

"The Dierckses’ visionary investment will bolster Mayo Clinic’s efforts through the Platform to curate the world's de-identified data, empower solution developers and transform healthcare around the world," says John Halamka, M.D., the inaugural Dwight and Dian Diercks President, Mayo Clinic Platform.

“Through the reach of Mayo Clinic Platform, the Dierckses’ remarkable generosity will accelerate new innovations that fundamentally change how health systems and care teams provide care to improve patients' lives,” says Dr. Halamka, who also holds the Michael D. Brennan, M.D., President’s Strategic Initiative Professorship.

Mayo Clinic Platform is a key focus of Mayo Clinic’s Bold. Forward. strategy to transform healthcare globally. Disrupting the traditional pipeline paradigm, Mayo Clinic Platform brings together solution developers, data partners and healthcare organizations to collaborate around secure, de-identified clinical data to create, validate and scale digital health solutions. It currently offers access to a diverse dataset of 46 million de-identified and longitudinal patient records, AI model validation for accuracy and removal of bias, and streamlined clinical integration. This transformative model is expediting a new era of revolutionary diagnostics and treatments that redefine the frontiers of patient care and well-being.

The Heidi Diercks Krause Fund in AI Innovation for Cancer will enable Mayo Clinic’s Generative Artificial Intelligence Program and Mayo Clinic’s Comprehensive Cancer Center to advance answers for cancer. An example of this work includes developing advanced generative AI tools to gain deep insights into a person’s risk of developing cancer. This forecasting will allow clinicians to intervene earlier than ever before — even before cancer can be diagnosed.

“We are profoundly grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Diercks for their support, which will help us bring the promise of AI to patients at the earliest phases of their care journeys,” says Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic’s medical director for Strategy, chair of Radiology in Rochester and leader of the Generative Artificial Intelligence Program. “Cancer affects people from all walks of life, and leveraging AI to tackle and treat this devastating disease will be critical for improving outcomes for all patients.”

As senior vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA, Mr. Diercks has been involved in AI innovation since the company’s inception.

“We can't afford to wait years or decades for new AI breakthroughs in healthcare. People need new therapies and cures now,” says Mr. Diercks. “Dian and I truly believe that Mayo Clinic Platform and AI innovation will be the keys to better predicting diseases like cancer, so physicians can intervene sooner with more effective treatments that save, extend or improve the quality of patient lives. It gives me comfort knowing my sister’s legacy will live on through these efforts to transform cancer care for everyone. Heidi lived for her family, and having additional time with her husband, Scott, and daughter, Kate, meant the world to her. In the future, we hope that extension of time can be amplified tenfold for others.”

Mr. Diercks grew up in Red Wing, Minnesota, less than 50 miles from Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus, where he worked on his family’s farm as a teenager. His close family, including his late father and sister, trusted Mayo Clinic for their most complex health needs.

“I tell my friends that receiving care at Mayo Clinic is like being at the intersection of medicine and hardcore engineering. Everyone is focused on finding the right tests and data to solve the most personal, important health challenges in your life,” says Mr. Diercks. 

Mr. Diercks earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering with a minor in business from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). The Dierckses have provided transformational support to MSOE that has resulted in a nation-leading computer science program in applied AI and supercomputing. With their latest gift to Mayo Clinic, they aim to provide the same accelerant to AI innovation, now within healthcare.

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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 at www.mayoclinicplatform.org.

About Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center
Designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute, Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center is defining new boundaries in possibility, focusing on patient-centered care, developing novel treatments, training future generations of cancer experts and bringing cancer research to communities. At Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, a culture of innovation and collaboration is driving research breakthroughs that are changing approaches to cancer prevention, screening and treatment, and improving the lives of cancer survivors.

Media contact:

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

The post $20 million gift from Dwight and Dian Diercks to accelerate Mayo Clinic’s strategy for transformational healthcare AI and innovation appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Reporter Jason Howland has more in this Mayo Clinic Minute.

Watch: The Mayo Clinic Minute

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (0:59) is in the downloads at the end of this post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.

Do face masks work at preventing COVID-19 transmission?

"Masks don't work unless we wear them," says Dr. Elie Berbari, a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases physician.

That's what Mayo Clinic researchers say they proved in a recent study.

"We found objectively that masks are critically important. They're very effective at protecting the people around you. If you're wearing a mask, you're protecting others. If they're wearing masks, they're protecting you," says Dr. Matthew Callstrom, a Mayo Clinic radiologist and one of the study's authors.

The experiments used masked and unmasked mannequins that simulated the spread of respiratory droplets and measured it at various distances.

"The most important transmission of a COVID-19 particle is a respiratory droplet. We measured the aerosol particles which are even smaller. And we found that masking was very effective even for those particles, the smallest ones," says Dr. Callstrom.

The study showed that disposable paper medical masks and two-layer cloth masks reduced droplet transmission.

"We're all tired of wearing masks. But I think this is really highlighting the importance of it," says Dr. Berbari.

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For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in an area not designated for patient care, where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date. 

For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.

Learn more about tracking COVID-19 and COVID-19 trends.

The post Mayo Clinic Minute: Study shows masks can prevent COVID-19 appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended this week that people vaccinated against COVID-19 resume wearing masks in public indoor spaces in areas of the United States where the virus is spreading. “Appropriate masking in addition to vaccination remain the best methods to help protect individuals from the Coronavirus,” says Gregory Poland, M.D., an infectious disease expert at Mayo Clinic.

In fact, published data from Mayo Clinic researchers have found that appropriate masking and physical separation reduces the exposure of individuals to respiratory droplets that spread the virus and a physical separation of 6 feet reduces particle counts to near baseline levels. The findings, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, strongly support the protective value and effectiveness of widespread mask use, maintaining physical distance and vaccination in helping to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Watch: Dr. Elie Berbari and Dr. Matthew Callstrom discuss mask study.

Journalists: Broadcast-quality soundbites are in the downloads at the end of the post along with b-roll of the aerosol study. Please "Courtesy: Elie Berbari, M.D./Infectious Diseases/Mayo Clinic" and "Matthew Callstrom, M.D./Radiology/Mayo Clinic."

"Our masking study emulated the production of respiratory droplets by using mannequins, that were masked and other mannequins that were unmasked," says Elie Berbari, M.D., chair of the department of infectious diseases at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “We measured the spread of those droplets at various distances.”

Researchers measured how effectively masks blocked the number of aerosol particles from a masked source, simulating an individual with a COVID-19 infection, and they simulated the risk of an individual contracting COVID-19 when they were masked.

"We found the most important measure for reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19 is to wear a mask," says Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the department of radiology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. "We found that both disposable paper medical masks and two-layer cloth masks were effective in reducing droplet transmission and we did not find a difference between mask types in terms of how well they blocked aerosol particles emitted by the wearer."

2-micron particles represent an aerosol particle that could contain many coronavirus particles.

"The most common mechanism for COVID-19 transmission is through respiratory droplets which are larger than aerosols and are more easily blocked with masks," says Dr. Callstrom.

A second part of the study measured aerosol particle counts from a source to a target from one foot to six feet apart, at one-foot intervals. Researchers found that overall, particle counts were reduced with increasing distance which supports current CDC guidance of maintaining physical separation of six feet from others.  

The graph shows the percentage of particle counts across various distances of 1 foot to 6 feet when the source, target and both are masked using disposable and cloth masks.

"I think we had some knowledge about the importance of masks and there's been a number of studies that have shown masks are effective in blocking viruses, but what's really important here is just how effective masking is when done by both parties," says Dr. Berbari.

Watch: See the mannequins in action.

He says additional measures to reduce the risk of transmission include frequent hand washing and use hand sanitizer before and after meals, and after removing masks, and honoring posted room capacities in busy areas.

"We found objectively that masks are critically important for protecting yourself and the people around you," says Dr. Callstrom. "If you're wearing a mask, you're protecting others. If they're wearing masks, they're protecting you."

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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. For information on COVID-19, including Mayo Clinic’s Coronavirus Map tracking tool, which has 14-day forecasting on COVID-19 trends, visit the Mayo Clinic COVID-19 Resource Center.

Media contact:

• Joe Dangor, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, newsbureau@mayo.edu

For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in an area not designated for patient care, where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was either recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in a nonpatient care area where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date. 

For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.

The post Study shows masks offer protection as COVID-19 infections tick up appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

As the number of reported COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Mayo Clinic experts urge the public to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines this Thanksgiving.

"The guidance right now is to keep your party at your family nucleus ― immediate family ― and really try to use other ways to celebrate the holidays through Zoom or other venues," says Dr. Elie Berbari, chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Mayo Clinic. "And if you work together, wearing a mask and limiting the group is so important."

Watch: Mayo Clinic experts talk about Thanksgiving plans and safety.

Journalists: Broadcast-quality soundbites are available in the downloads at the end of the post.

The safest way to celebrate Thanksgiving is to celebrate at home with people in your household. These efforts reduce the risk of spreading or contracting COVID.

What are some of the Mayo Clinic experts doing differently this year?

"We have a very small family. My only close relative is my sister. This will be the first year that we aren't together in the same kitchen around the same table for Thanksgiving. We talked about this and feel we really need to be careful. Distance doesn't change our relationship. It doesn't change the love we have for each other. We're going to get on Zoom, and we're going to talk. She's going to have her meal that she's preparing, and we're going to have ours. We're going to have a quiet holiday being thankful for the light at the end of the tunnel to this pandemic and being thankful for each other. We've been in this together. And now we're going to pull through this together."

Dr. Melanie Swift, Occupational Medicine

"Ordinarily, we would travel around. We would visit some of our family in Wisconsin. But this year, we have all agreed not to do this. What we're planning on doing is celebrating ourselves but then spending time and making sure that during the day that we have those virtual get-togethers, as well."

Dr. Craig Sawchuk, a Mayo Clinic psychologist

"Normally, when we would have Thanksgiving, we would probably have more than 20 people together. It's an important event for our family, but this year, we are not doing it. We're going have just our immediate family ― those who we know have been very careful together ― and then we're going to be careful when we're together."

Dr. Matt Callstrom, Mayo Clinic radiologist.

It's important to wear a mask and to continue to socially distance in an effort to reduce the likelihood of contracting or spreading the virus, says Dr. Richard Oeckler, director of the medical/COVID-19 ICU at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

"Please, I know the Thanksgiving holiday and other holidays are coming up, and I'm just hopeful that everybody can stay safe," says Dr. Oeckler. "And if you can, please do that virtually as best you can. It's not ideal, but I think it'll help us get back to normalcy as soon as possible."

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding, along with guidelines and recommendations, may have changed since the original publication date.  

For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in an area not designated for patient care, where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.

The post Mayo Clinic experts urge ‘household holiday’: Keep Thanksgiving gathering to a minimum appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — New, published data from researchers at Mayo Clinic has found that physical separation reduces the exposure of respiratory droplets and that three feet is helpful but 6 feet separation reduces particle counts to near baseline levels. The findings strongly support the protective value and effectiveness of widespread mask use and maintaining physical distance in helping to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Watch: Dr. Elie Berbari and Dr. Matthew Callstrom discuss mask study.

Journalists: Broadcast-quality soundbites are in the downloads at the end of the post along with b-roll video of the mask containment study. Please "Courtesy: Elie Berbari, M.D./Infectious Diseases/Mayo Clinic" and "Matthew Callstrom, M.D./Radiology/Mayo Clinic."

"This was an experimental study where we emulated the production of respiratory droplets by using mannequins, that were masked and other mannequins that were unmasked and measured the spread of those droplets at various distances," says Elie Berbari, M.D., chair of the department of infectious diseases at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Watch: See the mannequins in action.

Researchers measured how effectively masks blocked the number of aerosol particles from a masked source, simulating an individual with a COVID-19 infection, and they simulated the risk of an individual contracting COVID-19, when they were masked.

"We found the most important measure for reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19 is to wear a mask," says Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the department of radiology at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. "We found that both disposable paper medical masks and two-layer cloth masks were effective in reducing droplet transmission and we did not find a difference between mask types in terms of how well they blocked aerosol particles emitted by the wearer."

"The most common mechanism for COVID-19 transmission is through respiratory droplets which are larger than aerosols and are more easily blocked with masks," says Dr. Callstrom.

A second part of the study measured aerosol particle counts from a source to a target from one foot to six feet apart, at one-foot intervals. Researchers found that overall, particle counts were reduced with increasing distance which supports current CDC guidance of maintaining physical separation of six feet from others.  

He says additional measures to reduce the risk of transmission include frequent hand washing and use hand sanitizer before and after meals, and after removing masks, and honoring posted room capacities in busy areas.

"We found objectively that masks are critically important for protecting yourself and the people around you," says Dr. Callstrom. "If you're wearing a mask, you're protecting others. If they're wearing masks, they're protecting you."

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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 and Mayo Clinic Facts for more information about Mayo.

Media contact:

• Joe Dangor, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, newsbureau@mayo.edu

For the safety of its patients, staff and visitors, Mayo Clinic has strict masking policies in place. Anyone shown without a mask was recorded prior to COVID-19 or recorded in an area not designated for patient care, where social distancing and other safety protocols were followed.

The post Mayo Clinic research confirms critical role of masks in preventing COVID-19 infection appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

Reduced patient volumes this spring gave Mayo Clinic Radiology technologists time to train and help move the department's artificial intelligence projects forward.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has upended business as usual at Mayo Clinic and globally, the Department of Radiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester has used the opportunity to expedite a planned initiative to support Mayo Clinic's digital strategy.

Because of a reduced demand for their services as Mayo deferred non-emergency services, breast imaging, CT and MR technologists received training to help in the development of artificial intelligence algorithms.

"We are fortunate to have staff who are eager to learn new skills and take on new challenges," says Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Radiology in Rochester. "The current situation has allowed us to move these projects forward."

The technologists' help will allow these algorithms to be brought into the clinical practice sooner than they otherwise would have been available.

Unexpected downtime and opportunity

With non-emergency care deferred, there were fewer patients at Mayo Clinic, which provided CT, MR and breast imaging technologists with unexpected time to learn new skills, train and support staff in other endeavors. Many took advantage of this time to learn pancreas segmentation, which produces images that are used to teach an algorithm to detect pancreatic cancer.

In addition, breast imaging technologists trained do the same thing with breast tissue segmentation, which produces images to teach an algorithm to detect breast cancer. Another group of technologist is doing the same with liver segmentation to detect lesions.

As of this writing, nearly 2,800 cases have been completed, and more than 70 technologists have been trained. The success of the program in Rochester has allowed the program to expand to Mayo Clinic in Arizona, as well, where the group is working with Akira Kawashima, M.D., Ph.D., Abdominal Imaging.

Panos Korfiatis, Ph.D., Radiology AI Informatics, who is involved in this and other artificial intelligence projects, says more than 100 technologists will be trained to help in segmenting thousands of images. Staff who receive this training will also be able to assist on other projects in the future, with the hope that additional technologists will be given a similar opportunity.

The training program began in March with a virtual session that walked a small group of technologists through everything that is being asked of them, including lists of scans that would need to be examined and the software they would be using, Dr. Korfiatis says.

The human intelligence and effort  behind artificial intelligence

"AI has received much attention, and too frequently it is viewed as magic that will solve all problems and replace us all. These projects are great examples that we still need lots of human intelligence and effort to train the AI to do tasks that we do," says Bradley Erickson, M.D., Ph.D., scientific director of the Enterprise Radiology Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee. "But if we can create large training sets such as these, it will enable us to use computers to perform many important tasks so that we can provide the best care for our patients."

Ajit Goenka, M.D., credits his team, Ananya Panda, M.B.B.S., Ishan Garg, M.B.B.S., and Garima Suman, M.D., with rising to the challenge to develop training materials and work with allied health staff in early-morning sessions. "We now will perform quality assurance and quality control processes for all segmentations, improve the training materials and then share our efforts with other institutions through a journal publication," he says.

A learning curve

Katlyn Kay, a CT technologist who is one of the early adopters helping with the pancreas image segmentation and now liver segmentation. She says the training was led by Dr. Korfiatis and his colleagues by teleconference and screen-sharing so trainees could see how they use QREADS, the system used to view clinical patient images, to outline the pancreas gave a really great idea of what was expected during this process.

She and fellow technologists who have completed the training perform the segmentations between patients. She says there is a bit of a learning curve at first.

"I like that the work helps me review my anatomy. We were given information about the anatomy around the pancreas during the training, so being able to translate that to a CT scan is a nice refresher," Kay says.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to clinical practice, education and research, providing expert, comprehensive care to everyone who needs healing. Learn more about Mayo Clinic. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.

The post Radiology technologists use slow times to train to help with department’s AI projects appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Looking to the future, radiologists at Mayo Clinic in Rochester saw an opportunity to bring several disparate tools together into a unified space to serve complementary roles in sophisticated, minimally invasive cancer treatments.

The Hybrid Procedural Suite was designed primarily to advance the evolving practice of tumor ablation — a needle-based treatment that destroys cancerous or otherwise abnormal tissue.  Ablation is used to target cancer in locations such as the kidneys, liver, lung and prostate, as well as soft tissues and bones. The Hybrid Procedural Suite brings together CT, fluoroscopy and ultrasound in one room, with MRI procedural capabilities in an adjoining room. In the near future, a third room will be constructed to add a dual-source CT scanner.

"The driving force is really to improve outcomes for patients," says Matthew Callstrom, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Midwest Department of Radiology, adding that combining these technologies will allow for more objective measurement of the success of these procedures, and provide opportunities for the approach to be standardized and improved.

"Right now, I'd say the world operates along the lines of using tools that are not designed specifically for use in ablation. You find workarounds and try to do the best you can with the tools that you have," Dr. Callstrom says. "We need a standard approach to treatment and to drive toward very predictable outcomes."

Procedural suites are nothing new. The hybrid piece is, though — specifically bringing fluoroscopy into the CT suite and allowing for these tools to be combined with MRI, Dr. Callstrom says. "This sort of integrated solution is only offered in a few centers across the world. The way we're trying to do it is unique, with a full solution-based strategy. The ultimate goal is to drive patient outcomes so that the treatment they get at Mayo Clinic is better than anywhere in the world."

As part of the collaboration to build this new suite, the Department of Radiology worked closely with anesthesiologists, urologists, medical oncologists, neurologists, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, radiation oncologists, physicists and outside experts to develop solutions that would help physicians perform each complex procedure, and plan for and assess progress during and after the procedure.

"We've designed a room with CT and fluoroscopy together, which allows us to, for example, place devices off axis in the spine or pelvis because those structures are not aligned in the axial plane," he says. "Also, if monitoring a procedure with MRI is the best approach, we've worked with Philips to develop a transfer system to go from CT into the MRI suite because those two rooms are adjacent and separated by a door. The barriers to using the right imaging modality at the right phase of treatment have been markedly reduced."

Another aspect that distinguishes Mayo's approach is that each room can be run independently with unrelated procedures occurring simultaneously, Dr. Callstrom says.

"This Hybrid Procedural Suite has been an important part of our conception of how we take our practice to the next level," says Anil Nicholas Kurup, M.D., an abdominal and interventional radiologist. "The suite serves as a platform to really elevate the care of patients with complex cancers. We have taken off the harness and removed any limitations we previously had regarding how best to both visualize the target of our procedure, and apply the tools and the techniques we typically use outside of procedures. Some steps are done well with one type of imaging modality; whereas, other parts of these complex procedures are done well with another imaging modality."

To help achieve the vision for what the suite would include, Dr. Callstrom says that Mayo Clinic collaborated with Philips to tailor the equipment needs so that the radiology staff could perform these important procedures without interruption.

"Part of the collaboration with Philips was to take a look at solutions rather than just the procedural event," he says. "Can we plan effectively? Can we come up with an approach where we figure out what the thermal dose is, drive toward a specific dose, assess it afterward, and measure very accurately and objectively what the ablation margin is? None of these tools exist currently, so we're collaborating to develop new solutions."

The unification of the tools will allow for improved outcomes through precise, individualized medicine, Dr. Callstrom adds.

David Woodrum, M.D., Ph.D., an interventional radiologist, says Mayo Clinic physicians have used each modality — CT, MRI, fluoroscopy and ultrasound — individually for various procedures, but integration was needed to take patient care to another level.

"We need to couple the modalities together to bring out the best qualities of each, and then use that combination to bring new treatments for patients where there aren't treatments now," he says, adding that this space specifically improves options for patients in need of spine and pelvic interventions, and prostate and liver cancer therapies.

"I think the benefit of this new suite for patients is twofold: No. 1, creating procedures that were not possible before. Some of the prostate cancer recurrences we're treating really have had surgery, have had radiation, but just don't have any other options. So image-guided ablation gives them another treatment option," Dr. Woodrum says. "This is also true for some of the vascular malformations that we're treating in MRI. Many of these patients have exhausted standard surgical or medical therapies, and are really left without much hope. So if we can offer another treatment possibility due to more detailed imaging, then this gives our patients hope where there was none. No. 2, we need to deliver the most precise treatments we can possibly deliver. And by using each imaging platform in its most advantageous way, we can deliver the best results to the patient."

It's a learning process, moving to the new suite, Dr. Kurup says. "Teamwork was better than I could have hoped for, really, and it's ongoing. The innovation behind the Hybrid Procedural Suite is not just limited to the construction of the space, but is a mindset that our team carries forward each day."  

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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 and An Inside Look at Mayo Clinic for more information about Mayo.

Media contact:

• Ethan Grove, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

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Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest cancers, as it typically spreads rapidly to nearby organs, and it is seldom detected in its early stages. The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer is just above 8 percent, but new treatment options are improving those numbers.

On the next Mayo Clinic Radio program, Dr. Mark Truty, a general surgeon at Mayo Clinic, will discuss pancreatic cancer and explain the new treatment protocol that is offering hope. Also on the program, Dr. Matthew Callstrom, a radiologist at Mayo Clinic, will discuss how tumor ablation can be used to treat solid cancers. And Dr. Landon Trost, a urologist at Mayo Clinic, will share what you need to know about biopsies for prostate cancer.

Here's your Mayo Clinic Radio podcast.

The post Pancreatic cancer / tumor ablation / biopsies for prostate cancer: Mayo Clinic Radio appeared first on Mayo Clinic News Network.