What You Should Know:
– Mayo Clinic has announced a generous $20M gift from Dwight and Dian Diercks that will significantly advance key elements of Mayo Clinic’s vision, including the Mayo Clinic Platform and the application of artificial intelligence (AI) for early cancer detection and intervention.
– In recognition of this 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.
Mayo Clinic Platform: Pioneering a New Era in Healthcare
Mayo Clinic Platform is a cornerstone of Mayo Clinic’s Bold. Forward. strategy, aimed at transforming healthcare on a global scale. By disrupting the traditional pipeline paradigm, Mayo Clinic Platform fosters collaboration among solution developers, data partners, and healthcare organizations. These stakeholders work together around secure, de-identified clinical data to create, validate, and scale digital health solutions.
Currently, the platform provides access to a diverse dataset of 46 million de-identified and longitudinal patient records. It also offers AI model validation to ensure accuracy and the removal of bias, as well as streamlined clinical integration. This innovative model is accelerating a new era of revolutionary diagnostics and treatments, redefining the frontiers of patient care and well-being.
Advancing AI Innovation in Cancer
The Heidi Diercks Krause Fund in AI Innovation for Cancer will empower Mayo Clinic’s Generative Artificial Intelligence Program and Mayo Clinic’s Comprehensive Cancer Center to advance cancer research and treatment. One prominent example of this work involves the development of advanced generative AI tools to gain deep insights into an individual’s risk of developing cancer. This predictive capability will enable clinicians to intervene earlier than ever before, potentially even before a cancer diagnosis can be made.
A Legacy of Innovation and Support
Dwight Diercks, currently the senior vice president of software engineering at NVIDIA, has been at the forefront of AI innovation since the company’s inception. His deep connection to Mayo Clinic began during his youth in Red Wing, Minnesota, located less than 50 miles from Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus. During his teenage years, he worked on his family’s farm and witnessed firsthand the exceptional care Mayo Clinic provided to his close family, including his late father and sister.
Mr. Diercks holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering with a minor in business from the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE). The Diercks family has previously made transformational contributions to MSOE, leading to the establishment of a nation-leading computer science program in applied AI and supercomputing. With their latest gift to Mayo Clinic, the Dierckses aim to bring the same level of acceleration to AI innovation within healthcare.
“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.”
