Mayo Transform 2012 Recap

Doctors. Designers. Congressmen. It was our second year at Transform, and the Mayo Clinic put on yet another stellar event with some of the top thinkers and doers in health–and beyond. Topics ranged from end-of-life decisions and suicide to patient centered design. Once again journalist and author John Hockenberry anchored the event, sharing his own experiences within the system as a paraplegic from the chest down. And in an unexpected addition, Transform concluded with a talk from Garrison Keillor, best known for his radio show “A Prairie Home Companion”, who did the same.

The trip to Rochester alone makes Transform a unique experience each year. Whether it’s touring CFI, a trip through the rest of campus, or dinner in and around Mayo, the whole place is steeped in history and tradition. This time around, we were fortunate enough to attend a special dinner inside of the Plummer Library, named for one of the clinic’s founders, Dr. Henry Stanley Plummer.

As for our involvement, in the spirit of sharing the entrepreneurial spirit that flows through Rock Health, we put together an interactive session entitled “Startup Bootcamp”, which challenged participants to actually start and pitch a company in 60 minutes. The company mission? To provide a cool, patient-friendly, fashionable and functional hospital gown. And it was a hit. For media coverage, read this write-up.

If you couldn’t make it to Rochester this year, here were a few of our favorite pieces of content, in convenient video format. For all of the speaker content, visit this page.