Axios: What health care should look like. Quote: “Doctors and patients leverage massive databases of medical information, sorted and analyzed by AI, then channeled into 500 different algorithms to help find cures and better serve patients.” Mayo partners with Microsoft

Posted on August 16, 2026 by michelleclarke2015
What health care should look like
 
Illustrated collage of a cascading pattern of shields with the center as the largest shield, overlaid with a tech grid pattern and bits of binary along the edges.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Stock: Getty Images
 
Axios CEO Jim VandeHei devoted this weekend’s Axios C-Suite newsletter to the challenges he and his wife, Autumn, have faced in navigating America’s health care system — and their glimpse of medical nirvana:

My wife, Autumn, has spent nearly a quarter of the past four years in ERs and hospitals, untangling and battling three chronic conditions — and a shamefully broken U.S. medical system.

We live in Washington, D.C., with top-rated hospitals in our backyard. Yet her experience has been eye-opening and often horrifying, especially for a nation that spends twice as much on medical care as our rivals.

And we’re the lucky ones, with blue-chip insurance, a sophisticated understanding of the system and resources to attack problems. Most patients don’t have those things.

All of this left us infuriated and hopeless — until we landed in a small Minnesota city and glimpsed medical nirvana: the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. It was like discovering a foreign land — or seeing a future that could and should be.

The best part: I soon discovered AI could easily help unlock the best of Mayo for everyone. Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, a gastroenterologist who’s president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, told me he’s racing to show the federal government and other hospitals how to replicate the Mayo magic.

🩻 How it works: Mayo doctors work as teams. They’re paid to heal, not to operate or medicate. Nurses handle four or so patients — fewer than we’ve experienced at even some of the best hospitals back home.

Everyone is kind and talented. Rooms are clean. Every appointment begins on time. Imaging and blood tests get scheduled immediately, not after months of anxious waiting. Results land instantly in your online portal.

But the real difference-maker: Doctors and patients leverage massive databases of medical information, sorted and analyzed by AI, then channeled into 500 different algorithms to help find cures and better serve patients.

Consider cases like Autumn’s: She has several different things wrong requiring expertise across many domains. Few, if any, humans could piece together this puzzle alone. This is where AI could make a big impact — now.

Mayo recently signed a deal with Microsoft to expand and expedite its own frontier AI model to further scale and refine this work. Both are fine-tuning the AI with hopes of sharing it broadly.Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, Mayo Clinic president and CEO. Image via Mayo Clinic

“None of this works unless health data is arranged maximally for humans and AI agents,” Farrugia told me. “What makes it work or scalable is organizing all the knowledge so doctors can use it optimally and so agents can use it optimally, so we get the best data to help patients.

“The catch: “I could give this to every hospital — and they can’t use it.” That’s because most hospitals lack the technology, money, systems and focus to use health data drawn from patients and broader pools.

⬇️ Jim’s column continues below.
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About michelleclarke2015

Life event that changes all: Horse riding accident in Zimbabwe in 1993, a fractured skull et al including bipolar anxiety, chronic fatigue …. co-morbidities (Nietzche 'He who has the reason why can deal with any how' details my health history from 1993 to date). 17th 2017 August operation for breast cancer (no indications just an appointment came from BreastCheck through the Post). Trinity College Dublin Business Economics and Social Studies (but no degree) 1997-2003; UCD 1997/1998 night classes) essays, projects, writings. Trinity Horizon Programme 1997/98 (Centre for Women Studies Trinity College Dublin/St. Patrick's Foundation (Professor McKeon) EU Horizon funded: research study of 15 women (I was one of this group and it became the cornerstone of my journey to now 2017) over 9 mth period diagnosed with depression and their reintegration into society, with special emphasis on work, arts, further education; Notes from time at Trinity Horizon Project 1997/98; Articles written for Irishhealth.com 2003/2004; St Patricks Foundation monthly lecture notes for a specific period in time; Selection of Poetry including poems written by people I know; Quotations 1998-2017; other writings mainly with theme of social justice under the heading Citizen Journalism Ireland. Letters written to friends about life in Zimbabwe; Family history including Michael Comyn KC, my grandfather, my grandmother's family, the O'Donnellan ffrench Blake-Forsters; Moral wrong: An acrimonious divorce but the real injustice was the Catholic Church granting an annulment – you can read it and make your own judgment, I have mine. Topics I have written about include annual Brain Awareness week, Mashonaland Irish Associataion in Zimbabwe, Suicide (a life sentence to those left behind); Nostalgia: Tara Hill, Co. Meath.
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