The Mayo Clinic is a not-for-profit medical practice that includes a group of hospitals and smaller facilities focused on patient care, education, and research. The Mayo Clinic has a reputation for being a pioneer in medical treatment and advancement, and continues to earn this reputation by focusing on more than just diagnosis and treatment. The clinic works toward advancing medical knowledge and care by conducting clinical trials and research into a variety of serious medical conditions.
History
The Mayo Clinic began as a small, single outpatient facility founded by Dr. William Worrall Mayo and his sons, Charles Horace Mayo and William James Mayo. These three doctors, along with Dr. Balfour, Dr. Graham, Dr. Judd, Dr. Millet, Dr. Henry Plummer, and Dr. Stinchfield, created a group called the Mayo Properties Association in 1919. The private practice became a not-for-profit entity, and the group took on additional staff. Also around this time, Dr. Mayo co-founded the University of Minnesota medical school with a gift of two million dollars, and the Mayo staff doctors worked as professors at that medical school until the early 1970s. In 1972, Mayo Clinic started its own medical school, which is located in Rochester, Minnesota. Since that time, the clinic has continued to expand, both in geography and in practice and research.
Significance
The Mayo Clinic, the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit medical practice in the world, has a reputation as a pioneer in patient care, academic education, and medical research. Dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of every kind of illness, the clinic brings together physicians from all medical specialties to serve the best interests of patients in need of medical treatment. More than 3,300 researchers, scientists, and doctors and 46,000 allied health workers form the professional group.
Geography
In addition to a number of smaller facilities, the Mayo Clinic has three main locations in Rochester, Minnesota, Jacksonville, Florida, and Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. These primary clinical locations provide every type of medical service currently available and treat more than half a million patients each year. Smaller medical facilities are located in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to form an organization referred to as the "Mayo Health System."
Function
The Mayo Clinic and its wealth of doctors, specialists, and other medical professionals provide comprehensive diagnosis and effective treatment to the public. Focused on patient care, as well as clinical research and education, the Mayo Clinic goes a step beyond standard treatment and brings the latest in technology and medical advancements within reach of the general community. It functions as more than a collection of treatment centers; the clinic educates while conducting research essential to the future understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of countless medical disorders and diseases.
Potential
The Mayo Clinic conducts ongoing basic and clinical research programs to advance medicine, improve patient care, increase awareness and education, and benefit society. With clinical trials and research into brain and nerve disease, bone and muscle disorders, various cancers, gastrointestinal disease, endocrine and metabolic disorders, genomics, proteomics, heart and lung disease, kidney and urological conditions, infectious disease, and transplant research, the Mayo Clinic is destined to continue its history of pioneering innovation in medicine.
Tags: Mayo Clinic, patient care, diagnosis treatment, medical school, more than, clinical research