ASU and Mayo Clinic

Sept. 29, 2011

Transcript:

Ted Simons: Arizona is getting a new medical school. This week the Mayo Clinic Announced plans to establish a Branch of the mayo medical School on its Scottsdale campus. The new school will be called Mayo Medical School Arizona Campus, and it will feature a key collaboration with Arizona State University. Here to talk about the school And how it will impact health Care and health education is Dr. Wyatt Decker, CEO of the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, and ASU President Dr. Michael Crow.
Ted Simons: Good to see you both on "Horizon." Thanks for joining us.
Wyatt Decker: Great to meet you.
Dr. Michael Crow: Thank you.
Ted Simons: $266 million branch here and this will be connected to the existing campus?

Wyatt Decker: That's right. The medical school facility will be on our Scottsdale campus.

Ted Simons: How many students are you anticipating here?

Wyatt Decker: 48 students will be admitted to each class.

Ted Simons: And basically remodeling the existing structures, not much in the way of new construction I would imagine?

Wyatt Decker: That's right. We'll be refitting existing facilities to accommodate the Medical school.

Ted Simons: I understand a joint degree program is involved here. Can you explain that for us?

Dr. Michael Crow: Yes. ASU through our partnership with Mayo Clinic will focus on a graduate degree in the science of health care delivery, which will be a component part of producing a more broadly educated type of physician.

Ted Simons: And that means someone with different health care delivery systems, different personalized approach, these sorts of things?

Dr. Michael Crow: It means everything. It means scientific aspects of enhancing health outcomes, understanding health outcomes, personalized medicine aspects, biomedical informatics, a range of those things together.

Ted Simons: So the medical degree comes from Mayo Clinic, correct?

Wyatt Decker: That's correct. But even the medical degree will include collaboration with our colleagues at ASU. So the degree and the embedded masters training in the science of health care delivery will be fully integrated together in the curriculum and will involve collaboration with ASU and the Mayo Clinic.

Ted Simons: Is that different than from what we see at other medical Schools around the country?

Wyatt Decker: Absolutely. We're incredibly excited about this medical school. Not only because the nation has national shortage of physicians. And this will help and Arizona's actually ranked 37th in the Nation in terms of physicians per 1,000 population, so this will help with physician supply, but more exciting is the element Of the science of health care delivery and the curriculum the students will be trained in.

Ted Simons: Some of the basics, students will be based in Scottsdale, based in Tempe, in downtown? Where will they be focusing their attention?

Dr. Michael Crow: Medical students will concentrate their initial years On the Scottsdale campus, but they'll be working in the rest of the clinic for their third and fourth year. ASU faculty will be a part of all of that. So it's not a single place, it's not like students sitting in a room, they'll be part of the Mayo Clinic organization on its multiple campuses, and they'll be engaging in learning Experiences and teaching experiences everywhere.

Ted Simons: Isn't there, like a biomedical informatics already there -- talk to us about that.

Dr. Michael Crow: ASU moved our department of biomedical informatics into the Mayo Clinic and it has become a joint initiative in the sense where biomedical informatics, which is an undergraduate and graduate degree program for us in a research intensive unit for us, is already on the Scottsdale campus and is connecting to the Rochester campus and the Jacksonville campus so it's a part of our overall collaboration.

Ted Simons: I was going to ask you, why ASU? Why the collaboration there? Dr. Crow gave us a pretty good example.

Wyatt Decker: Well, it's a perfect example. I think it's unusual to see the level of collaboration that we're seeing between a major university and a big academic Medical center such as Mayo Clinic. We feel it's a perfect union of forces in that ASU's mission to deliver outstanding education that impacts society and Mayo Clinic's mission to deliver outstanding value driven care are very closely aligned.

Ted Simons: And I ask why ASU, why Mayo Clinic? As we all know, the UofA had a deal that kind of fell through. What's different here?

Dr. Michael Crow: I think what's different is That Mayo Clinic is a Comprehensive nationally based nationally focused Clinical -- comprehensive clinical organization. ASU is a comprehensive University that we have hundreds of subjects. If you take a comprehensive clinical organization and a comprehensive university, and you find ways to overlap, there are many things that you can work on together. And in a sense there's no medical school between us. So we're able to advance without a medical school, providing all of the assets that we have to The Mayo Clinic as a comprehensive clinical enterprise, and it just is a fantastic new way to advance the overall health outcomes of the broader population.

Ted Simons: How did the idea get started, how long did it take to get to this point?

Dr. Michael Crow: We have been working with Mayo Clinic for about nine years on a range of initiative, multiple research projects, research initiatives, and research laboratories, joint degree programs, nursing programs, a wide range of things. And these discussions relative to the medical school have been underway for a couple of years, from a conceptualization perspective and have just reached fruition.

Ted Simons: As far as reaching fruition and getting this going, there still needs to be some financing to make this a done deal?

Wyatt Decker: That's correct. To launch the medical school, we will be looking to raise about $75 million in philanthropy, and that will be complemented by an investment of the Mayo Clinic of $45 million. Ultimately as you mentioned, it will require about $266 million to endow the medical center in perpetuity. So it's a big lift.

Ted Simons: But as far as just getting things started and getting the process underway, probably I would imagine not the full 266.

Wyatt Decker: That's correct. So we at Mayo Clinic have already committed the funding for the $45 million, we will need to raise a commitment up to $75 million before the med school opens its doors.

Ted Simons: And when do you think the med School could open its doors?

Dr. Michael Crow: The target is the fall of 2014 and the university is committed to advance our component parts through our own university planning and university activities.

Ted Simons: Why does the valley, which sorely needed a medical school and may now be looking at two and certainly there are others in the valley as well, but why does the valley need in this case another medical school?

Dr. Michael Crow: Well, it's not about how many medical schools are needed or just about the number of physicians that are produced. But it's really about finding new ways to deliver health care at a lower cost tomorrow Do that you need to do a number Of things, including finding ways to produce doctors that are differentiated, that have a Broader set of skills and find new ways to work together between clinical organizations and universities. So what we're really after, the ultimate outcome here is enhanced health care delivery at a lower cost on a large scale. And this is a part of all of that.

Ted Simons: and obviously the other Mayo Campuses are a part of this as well.

Wyatt Decker: That's correct.

Ted Simons: Is that going to be difficult, logistically speaking, is that going to be a challenge?

Wyatt Decker: No. We do not expect so. So the students that matriculate here in Arizona will live and be based in Arizona. They'll live here and have opportunities to rotate clinically at our other facilities in Minnesota or Florida, and currently our Mayo medical students who are in -- based in Minnesota come to rotate at a clinic in Arizona, and actually many have enrolled in degree programs simultaneously with ASU.

Ted Simons: I remember when Mayo Clinic First came out to Arizona, It -- that was a big deal. The Mayo Clinic is coming! Why did the Mayo Clinic come here? And why -- this is quite the commitment to Arizona. This is not a pull up the stakes in another five years and you're out. Why the commitment?

Wyatt Decker: Mayo Clinic sees Arizona as a terrific opportunity to deliver the kind of care that we offer. And that's an integrated multidisciplinary approach to high values or very efficient models of care. We think that through the partnership with ASU, we're in a unique setting to really move medical education forward, and Do an even better job caring for our patients in the valley.

Ted Simons: And you're seeing that obviously as well. This has to be a pretty good opportunity to try some new things, innovative things and get ASU on the map as far as this medical research and education is concerned.

Dr. Michael Crow: Well our focus is really on changing health outcomes. So what we're doing is take our Relationship with the Mayo Clinic, we're building a new program in nutrition and Nutrition-related areas, we're Building this new unit related To the science of health care Delivery. We already have a relationship related to nursing, biomedical informatics. We're trying to piece all of the things together that can help lay down In a sense the intellectual Track that can get health care Moving in a new direction, and Our relationship with the Mayo Clinic helps us to be able to do That. We need new track because right Now we have a grossly underperforming and excessively expensive health care Enterprise, so we need new Approaches. Mayo is committed to new Approaches and we're trying to be of assistance to them.

Ted Simons: And Arizona is the land of new approaches.

Wyatt Decker: Absolutely. And the concept of the science Of health care delivery really Will be a game changer in Medical education is currently physicians are trained in all medical schools to be technically competent and provide compassionate care. But imagine if you would a Patient who suffers chest pain and is having a heart attack. They go to an emergency Department in the hospital, the Care they receive can be technically excellent, but the Providers traditionally have almost no education in the System, the system that could have perhaps prevented this Incident in the first place, and Once that patient arrives how do They get there. Was it efficient and safe? Once they're in the system, how well coordinate second degree their care. Those are the elements by Utilizing better data analysis and systems engineering that we believe that physicians formally trained in these techniques will be able to contribute to health Care.

Ted Simons: All right. We'll keep an eye on the progress and hopefully 2014 we'll see the first -- the Beginning of a great Relationship. Gentlemen, thank you so much.

Wyatt Decker: Great to be here. Thank you.

Dr. Michael Crow: Thank you.