Why the symposium was a success

Giants Among Us featured a keynote address, “Artificial Intelligence: The Fourth Industrial Revolution,” by Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Bhavik Patel. Patel leads a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, data specialists and computer science engineers exploring AI models to assist health care providers in decision-making.

Another highlight of the event was “lightning rounds” in which the principal investigators of 10 of Health Futures Center’s 25 resident labs and ventures gave brief presentations introducing their work and teams.

Biomedical informatics master's student Brittany Phelps said the lightning rounds were her favorite part of the day.

“Learning more about who shares the campus with us and what they’re working on was fascinating,” Phelps said. “The entire day could have been spent on that topic alone. Besides the value of knowing the expertise of the people around us, the stories of how some of the labs came to be were especially valuable. That process can be opaque, so learning how some researchers came to establish their individual labs was not only edifying, but humanizing.”

The stated goal of the symposium was to create opportunities for forging new partnerships and collaborations that will ultimately improve health and health care through innovation.

With nearly 200 participants attending the event in person and more tuning in via Zoom, it proved to be a fertile ground for the seeds of cooperation to take root.

“Attendees reported that our goal of new and richer collaborations between clinicians, scientists, faculty, entrepreneurs and students started that day,” Murcko said, “and Dr. Fonseca, Mayo Clinic’s alliance lead, has invited us to partner again for a Giants event next year!”

Weldon B. Johnson

Communications Specialist, College of Health Solutions