'For the benefit of all': Mayo partners with Amazon, Microsoft and others in the fight against COVID-19
Mayo Clinic has signed on to help lead a coalition of some of the biggest names in healthcare, technology, and academia in an effort to flatten the curve of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 Health Coalition, unveiled on March 23, includes various healthcare organizations (Mayo, University of California Health System, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, and Rush University System for Health in Chicago are notable members), plus technological firms like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, and various medical nonprofits and startups.
According to the news release announcing the coalition’s formation, Mayo Clinic was “among the first to coalesce around this effort,” along with Leavitt Partners and faculty from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Members of the coalition must agree to openly share plans and ideas with the other members, participate “for the benefit of the country only” (no preferential treatment to any organization), and refuse payment for coalition-related work. Its first finished project, released in conjunction with the coalition’s launch, was an interactive tool tracking various communities' vulnerabilities to COVID-19. (Minnesota ranks as the fifth-least vulnerable state in the country, according to their data.)
“Mitigating the pandemic’s worst effects requires bold, responsive action from health systems, industry, citizens, and policy makers,” the coalition’s website says. “For those efforts to succeed, we need rapid, nimble communication and coordination of resources across America’s large healthcare sector.”
Dr. John Halamka, president of the Mayo Clinic Platform, said the coalition’s goal of sharing resources was already helping members fight COVID-19 in a better and more organized fashion.
"The power of convening enables collaboration in ways that ensure the whole is greater than the sum of their parts," said Dr. Halamka. "In the past 24 hours I've seen the best of humanity coming from the coalition."
Dr. Halamka also touched on the coalition’s work and core principles in a series of blog posts. To properly combat the virus, he wrote, open communication and collaboration between major healthcare providers and partners will be vital.
“Pandemics thrive in confusion… not because diseases like COVID-19 have intent, but because the lack of a focused response makes the spread of disease so much easier,” wrote Dr. Halamka on Sunday. “We need to leverage the strengths of the private sector. By bringing together healthcare organizations, technology companies, non-profits, academia, and startups we can leverage their unique strengths for the benefit of all.”
As the coalition starts to expand and kick into gear, the Clinic continues to look for potential treatments for COVID-19. Dr. Stacey Rizza said Mayo has been researching treatments in multiple areas — such as epidemiology, virology, and artificial intelligence — for the past month. She says some medications used in foreign countries look promising, including antiviral medicines and immune modulators. Clinical trials for certain treatments started this week.
"We have all sorts of resources available for our patients as they come in so they can have every experimental and best therapy for their care, should they be sick with COVID-19," Dr. Rizza said.
Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.
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