Recently, Health Care Event Planning was asked to become an Executive Advisory Board member for Connect Medical, the medical arm of Connect Meetings. Connect Meetings is a US-based company located in Atlanta with 34 divisions (e.g. sports, expo, medical) that produces conferences and shows which connect professionals involved in travel, destination management, hospitality and events.

The purpose of the Connect Medical Executive Advisory Board is to gain insights from health care planners into the programming and content of future medical industry events as well as how to attract planners to Connect Medical events.

During the executive advisory board meeting, we were privileged to visit the world renown Mayo Clinic and their state-of-the-art medical facilities. The Mayo Clinic is located in Rochester, MN. The history is quite interesting. Over 150 years ago, Drs William J Mayo and Charles Mayo began their medical careers alongside their father William Worrall Mayo, who believed that “2 heads were better than one.”  This led the brothers to invite specialists from many fields to join their practice; thus the Mayo Clinic was born.

What I find fascinating about the Mayo Clinic is its rich association with the Nuns of St. Francis, who to this day are involved in the clinic. Another interesting fact is the Mayo Clinic’s commitment to salaried physicians. In North America, the majority of physicians are paid fee-for-service and that system has its challenges. Moreover, Will and Charles started a fund for medical research and education that was derived from contributing half their income to the fund! The fund continues to this day and permits the transformation of  research knowledge into breakthrough therapies and advances in patient care.

For me, the highlights of the Mayo Clinic were numerous but two examples stand out. The first is the Healthy Living Program. Imagine your local hospital investing in a state-of-the-art kitchen and staffing it with nutritionists and dieticians who could show you how to prepare healthy recipes so that you could attain your weight loss goals and reduce your risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease? Further imagine, a gym equipped with all the best machines and staff to encourage you to be fit? Finally, add in yoga classes, guided meditation and other stress reduction strategies. That is what the Healthy Living Program is all about.

The second example of excellence is the Simulation Program. This provides a chance for doctors to practice a variety of situations including but not limited to operations, perfecting techniques and communicating bad news to patients (who are represented by actors).

For more information about the Mayo Clinic, visit www.mayoclinic.org