Mayo Clinic Platform has expanded its distributed data network, Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect, through partnerships with three medical centers across the world to advance ethical AI in healthcare. The Mayo Clinic Platform Connect provides cloud-based data access to members without moving data or sacrificing control over it. The partnership will focus on algorithm development, validation, and deployment to promote proactive and predictive medicine. These efforts will complement the WHO’s recent launch of the Health Inequality Data Repository to address and track health disparities globally.
Mayo Clinic Platform has announced the expansion of its distributed data network, Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect, through partnerships with three leading medical centers around the world. Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in Brazil, Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and University Health Network (UHN) in Canada have joined Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect to advance artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. These new partnerships are in addition to an earlier collaboration with Missouri-based Mercy, which was the first member of Connect.
Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect offers secure, cloud-based data access through the Mayo Clinic’s Data Behind Glass approach. Under this model, Connect members have access to de-identified clinical data for use in research, but data does not need to be moved, and each health system retains control over its data. The aim of expanding Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect and its partnerships is to advance ethical health AI as part of a larger effort to transform patient care and improve outcomes.
According to John Halamka, MD, President of the Mayo Clinic Platform, “We describe the data needed for fair, equitable AI as having depth (types of information), breadth (number of patients), and spread (heterogeneity). To transform healthcare globally, we must expand our distributed data networks to every continent. We must protect privacy, adhere to international laws and regulations, and incorporate knowledge from every language. Today, three premier medical centers in South America, Canada, and the Middle East are joining our network. They will inspire and guide other regions and systems to join our worldwide effort.
The fact that complicated medical data is recorded in a variety of languages across continents and countries, as well as in electronic health records (EHRs), radiology and pathology images and videos, and other types of unstructured data, makes it more difficult to collect and analyze this information.
Eyal Zimlichman, MD, Chief Transformation Officer and Chief Innovation Officer at Sheba Medical Center, and Director and Founder of the ARC Center (Accelerate, Redesign, Collaborate) for Digital Innovation at Sheba Medical Center, said, “We are thrilled to be part of this historic alliance to transform the future of health.” By creating a truly global network that will break down language barriers and enable the inclusion of diverse populations, we are unlocking the potential of AI solutions to revolutionize health care worldwide. “This is not just a game-changer, but a visionary leap toward data-driven health care.”
The alliance will initially focus on information collaboration and algorithm development, validation, and deployment, which will support the analysis of disease treatment and prevention patterns to promote proactive and predictive medicine.
Gianrico Farrugia, MD, President and CEO of Mayo Clinic, said, “Mayo Clinic is transforming healthcare, but we are not doing this work alone.” “We created Mayo Clinic Platform_Connect to enable innovative organizations to join us to partner to create a healthier, more equitable future for everybody.”
Other organizations are also taking a global approach to data-driven improvements in healthcare and patient outcomes. In April, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched its Health Inequality Data Repository, the largest global collection of data on population health and health disparities, intending to track and address health disparities.
