Mayo Clinic ' s First Platform

In my first few days volunteering at Mayo Clinic to meet colleagues, establish collaborations, and better understand the amazing patient services Mayo provides throughout world, I had the opportunity to tour the historic Plummer Building with Douglas Holtan,  chair of the Department of Facilities and Support Services.  Immediately, I realized the building is Mayo ' s first platform.In my last post, I described a platform as a way to use knowledge and technology to facilitate connections, creating value in the process.How could a building be a platform?To understand that, you need to understand the past, provided to me by Matthew Dacy, creative and administrative director of the museum of Mayo Clinic.Henry Stanley Plummer, M.D. (March 3, 1874-December 31, 1936) was a prominent internist and endocrinologist in the founding generation of Mayo Clinic. With his interests in medicine, engineering and the arts, colleagues considered him a " diversified genius " whose example remains an inspiration for innovators at Mayo Clinic.He recognized the limits of the previous heterogeneous system in the Mayo practice. Each physician had his or her own ledger, limiting continuity of care when a patient had a return visit.  It was extremely difficult for multiple physicians to collaborate in the care of a single patient.What did he do?Dr. Plummer designed a  unified record and numeric registration system to benefit each individual patient while also accommodating a virtuall...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs