Q&A with Gianrico Farrugia, M.D.
Dr. Gianrico Farrugia is the president and CEO of Mayo Clinic, the world’s top-ranked healthcare organization. Powered by a 78,000-person workforce, Mayo Clinic cares for about 1.3 million people each year with serious or complex illnesses from all 50 U.S. states and nearly 130 countries. Under Dr. Farrugia’s leadership, Mayo Clinic is leading the platform transformation of healthcare to create new cures and make our healthcare system more innovative, accessible, resilient, and collaborative than ever before.
Dr. Farrugia has been a Mayo Clinic physician for more than 30 years and previously served as CEO of Mayo Clinic in Florida. He is jointly appointed in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, and the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering. He is also a professor of medicine and physiology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Dr. Farrugia is the co-author of “Think Big, Start Small, Move Fast: A Blueprint for Transformation from the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation,” a book highlighting the need for change in the delivery of healthcare.
Originally from Malta, Dr. Farrugia was a noted recipient of this year’s 2023 Ellis Island Medals of Honor, where he was a featured speaker. EIHS was delighted that he took time from his busy schedule to answer a few questions to share with our visitors.
What inspired you to follow a career in healthcare?
My interest in healthcare was first sparked by my father, who was a physician in Malta. He established his own private medical practice that included seeing patients at our home and he also established the first blood bank in Malta. I was inspired by his long-time connection to patients and his passion for healthcare. His tenacity and his caring were an inspiration to me and my brother, who also became a physician.
What do you consider your main responsibilities as President and CEO of Mayo Clinic?
Leading an institution like Mayo Clinic is a true honor and it is something I don’t take for granted. As CEO, my job is to ensure Mayo Clinic can continue to thrive and vigorously pursue our mission to provide hope and healing to patients with serious and/or complex diseases both now and for years to come. Even though Mayo Clinic is ranked as the number one hospital in the world, and we can achieve a lot of good outcomes for our patients, we know that this is still not enough. We have to do more. This is why, four years ago, we launched Bold. Forward., our plan to Cure, Connect, and Transform healthcare by transforming our entire healthcare paradigm from a pipeline model to a true platform. Through the Platform, we are integrating innovative AI tools as end-to-end solutions that are letting us to catch and treat disease better and earlier than ever before, scale our knowledge, and collaborate with our peers and partners in new ways.
Mayo Clinic values patient-centered care. How do you ensure that patients and their families feel respected and involved in their care?
When patients come to see us, it's usually at the most stressful time of their lives. Yet, when many of them enter our buildings, they tell us they sense something different. They sense hope, and that's a true Mayo Clinic differentiator. We will always provide hope. We will always provide healing. Our primary value is, "the needs of the patient come first," and we use that as our North Star for every decision we make and everything that we do, whether that is formulating a treatment plan, pursuing new lines of investment and research, or implementing cutting-edge techniques and tools into the practice. We also are relentless in our focus to continue to improve the quality of the care we provide and ever better outcomes for our patients.
Mayo Clinic emphasizes research and innovation. Can you discuss any research or quality improvement projects you've been involved in?
While I'm still involved in research, as CEO one of my main responsibilities is to enable and empower our teams and all of Mayo Clinic to innovate and pursue better ways to care for our patients and prevent harm. One example is AI – we can all see the potential impact of AI on healthcare, but like with any new tool, there is uncertainty and concern about how to use it safely and equitably, especially for disadvantaged patient populations where we often lack sufficient data. This is why Mayo Clinic co-founded the Coalition for Health AI, which is a coalition of health, government, business, and academic entities committed to developing rigorous standards for the ethical use of AI in healthcare. Earlier this year, we released the first Blueprint for Trustworthy AI, a document that will continue to evolve and grow as AI becomes more integral into healthcare. I am also co-chairing a National Academy of Medicine committee on establishing an AI Code of Conduct. These initiatives are critically important because without rigorous, trustworthy guidelines, we cannot expect patients and their care teams to entrust their care to new technology.
Can you discuss any experience you have with diversity and inclusion initiatives in healthcare?
I mentioned our primary value that "the needs of the patient come first," and how it guides everything that we do, without qualification, and this includes equity, diversity, and inclusion. Mayo Clinic has a national and global footprint, and we have a patient population from nearly 130 countries and all 50 states, so having a diverse and inclusive environment is essential to providing exceptional care to our patients, and it's something we take very seriously. In 2020, Mayo Clinic pledged $100 million over the next 10 years in its commitment against racism. We are ensuring that every dollar of that commitment is put to meaningful and actionable use, including to expanding the pipeline for healthcare careers to more students and learners by giving them access to hands on experience and guidance. Our team works hard every day to create a global environment of empowered belonging for everyone, and a welcoming culture where all voices and perspectives are encouraged, acknowledged, celebrated, and valued.
What are your goals for the future, personally, and as President and CEO of Mayo Clinic?
I would say my vision personally and as CEO are unified: to leave Mayo Clinic in a better place than when I began my tenure, and to ensure the next generation can continue to lead Mayo Clinic and all of healthcare toward a better future for our patients and for those in need. For me as an individual, and as an organization, we believe that the only way to do that is for all of healthcare to move toward a platform model that is more innovative, accessible, collaborative, and resilient to disruptions. We have shown that a platform model can develop novel tools, validate them, and integrate them seamlessly into the workflow to tremendous benefit—empowering our staff to do more and better, and scaling the impact and expertise of our world-class physicians, researchers, other care providers, and administrators to peers, colleagues, and patients in need who we could never have reached in a pipeline paradigm. As I tell our staff this is a once-in-a-century moment, and we're fortunate to have the chance to lead Mayo Clinic and healthcare toward this transformative vision for healthcare.
