About
Mayo Clinic seeks to provide the best possible care for its patients every day. For more than 150 years, Mayo has pursued solutions to the problems that exist in health care delivery, seeking continuous improvements in health and health care. The organization's ability to meet this goal stems from the research it conducts — in close alignment with the medical practice — to address the unmet needs of patients.
The Mayo Clinic Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery is creating and fostering a learning health system within Mayo Clinic. As a research center fully embedded in the medical practice, the Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery is uniquely positioned to build on and advance Mayo Clinic's strong history of taking a scientific approach to health care delivery.
A learning health system
Learning health systems use data and analytics to generate knowledge to inform decisions that transform the clinical practice. Put another way, a learning health system identifies problems or areas that could use improvement. It designs and tests new ways of doing things, implementing and updating processes along the way. Continuous refinement is part of the process, and a learning health system adjusts and improves care day to day.
In the Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery, every project is inspired by real-world challenges experienced by patients and health care providers at Mayo Clinic and elsewhere. Multidisciplinary teams work together to provide evidence-based health care delivery solutions that improve practice outcomes. The foundation of the center's work is an unwavering commitment to creating and sustaining a high-quality, affordable, seamless patient experience — provided by a healthy and happy workforce.
Capabilities of unique depth and breadth
The Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery is unique in its ability to draw on a breadth and depth of resources and multidisciplinary expertise to translate ideas and findings into real-world applications.
Within the center, experts come together from across a range of fields, including:
- Applied clinical informatics
- Data science
- Dissemination and implementation science
- Economics
- Engineering
- Ergonomics and human factors
- Experiential learning
- Health care policy
- Health services and outcomes research
- Human-centered design
- Information technology
- Knowledge synthesis
- Population health
- Qualitative research
- Social and behavioral science
Together, the team seeks to discover new ways to improve health and the way people experience health care. Within Mayo Clinic's culture of teamwork and collaboration, new models of health care delivery move rapidly from the earliest stages of research and discovery, through rigorous testing and refinement, and into routine patient care.
As new knowledge is generated and potential improvements are identified, the Mayo Clinic Kern Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery works with health care providers to apply this knowledge to clinical practice, leading to higher value care for patients at Mayo Clinic and everywhere.