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April 24, 2025 13 mins

In this episode of the Becker's Healthcare Podcast, Lukas Voss chats with William Morice II, M.D., Ph.D., CEO and President of Mayo Clinic Laboratories, about the power of collaboration in advancing clinical lab services and patient care. Dr. Morice discusses the organization’s evolving platform approach, how strategic collaborations enhance outcomes, and what Mayo Clinic Laboratories seeks in collaborators. Tune in for insights on how innovation, connectivity, and shared expertise are shaping the future of diagnostics and healthcare delivery.

This episode is sponsored by Mayo Clinic Laboratories.

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Episode Transcript

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(00:00):
Everyone. This is Lucas Voss with Becker's Healthcare.
Thanks so much for tuning in to the
Becker's Healthcare podcast series. Very excited to have
you all. And today, we're diving into the
value of collaboration in the clinical lab space
and beyond.
Joining me today for today's discussion is doctor
Bill Maurice,
the president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories. Doctor Maurice,
thanks so much for being here today.

(00:20):
It's my pleasure. It's good to be here,
so thanks for having me. Absolutely. It's great
to have you. And I wanna jump right
into it. There's so much happening
around Mayo Clinic and a lot of incredible
innovation certainly,
your connection with them obviously.
What is the value of of Mayo Clinic
Laboratories
collaborating
with others?

(00:41):
Well, it's a it's a great question. And
so, you know, just by way of background,
I mean, I spent my career at Mayo.
Right? I've been and as a as a
pathologist, I went on staff in February, did
my training here. And so
as you grow up through the Mayo system,
and you really you learn that Mayo has,
really, since its founding, you know, a a
strong,
a strong

(01:01):
bias towards innovation and and a real intentional
focus on collaboration. If you go to the
the office of doctor Will Mayo, which is
still kind of enshrined in the plumber building,
there's an adjacent room where he actually shows
many pictures of them traveling the globe,
to both share the surgical techniques they were
innovating on as well as learn from others.
So it's really a it's it's part of

(01:22):
the fabric of Mayo Clinic as a whole.
Right? That that the spirit of innovation and
the spirit of of collaboration.
In terms of, you know,
why now to look to the outside, particularly
in my area of clinical laboratory and diagnostics,
is that it's really a very exciting time
for us in the clinical laboratory in terms
of just the innovations that are that are
happening,

(01:43):
you know, not just within Mayo, but really
across,
you know, across the globe in terms of
diagnostics and and in a variety of areas.
It really a spectrum,
of health care from cancer to autoimmune diseases
to neuro neurologic diseases. And so the value
of us collaborating with others is that we
as we think about our primary focus, which
is the needs of the patient come first,

(02:05):
it allows us to act give those patients
access not just to our innovations, but the
innovations happening really across the globe and diagnostics
and using those to drive good both accurate
diagnosis and good health care decisions. And so
that that's why that's why we look to
the outside. That's why we're we're so passionate
about it, you know, at this in this
juncture because it really feels, honestly, like we're

(02:27):
at the threshold of a whole new era
in clinical diagnostics with all the great things
that are happening,
in terms of new technologies and tools that
are being created.
Yeah. And I I feel like innovation doesn't
happen without collaboration. Right? Those are those are
two things that are very much connected.
How do collaborations
really benefit

(02:47):
clients and the patients, obviously?
What are some of these primary benefits?
Well, I mean, it's it's funny. You mentioned
one there,
I think, is a key benefit. So one
of the the benefits, of course,
is making those tests. We help when we
work with a collaborator,
an another diagnostic
company
that has a tool that they've created that

(03:09):
we really wanna make available to the patients
that we serve, we, of course, help
them grow access. We help them grow access
to their diagnostic capability, which they've taken the
time to create. Right? And so that's that's
a a big benefit. It benefits also though
from being part of that Mayo ecosystem
and that, you know, we're thinking about these
tools not in in singularity,

(03:29):
but really about how they contribute to creating
an answer for a patient, for the doctor
that's treating them. Right? So they get into
that kind of way of thinking
about diagnostics as we present them out to
the market out and outside of Mayo Clinic.
And then if you're doing that, exactly what
you described, right, is that one of the
things that I've learned throughout my career is
that, you know, I've developed tests. I've developed

(03:50):
a number of new diagnostic tests, particularly in
the area of blood cancer diagnosis.
And as soon as you start making those
available to patients outside of our walls of
Mayo Clinic, you start learning things about better
ways to use that test, other questions which
need to be answered, which that test can't
answer. So it actually not only does it
grow the use of of the test with
our collaborator,

(04:10):
it actually continues to refine its use,
right, in terms of guiding clinical care and
ultimately can inform
them and us about what are some other
areas that we need to innovate. Right? So
then the innovation itself becomes very collaborative because
we're seeing the needs of the patient out
there, and we're now with a collaborator thinking
about what's the best way to answer it.

(04:30):
Yeah. Absolutely.
I think the key to that, however, is
that you're making the right choices on whatever
it may be, projects, but more importantly, who
are you collaborating with. Right? Who are you
choosing to actually say, okay. We'd like to
innovate. We want to work with you. We
want to do this.
How do you decide, and and what do
you look for in in collaborators?
Well, it's another a great question. Right? And

(04:52):
so one thing about us, our core value
at Mayo Clinic
is is the needs of the patient come
first. So we're very patient focused. Right? And
then and then we have also our other
core values, which really
it could go back to our Franciscan roots,
you know, which are, you know, respect, integrity,
compassion, healing, teamwork.
Innovation is one. Stewardship is another. So, really,

(05:13):
the first thing we look for, honestly, is
of kind of a value alignment because that's
so key. Because once you form, once you
collaborate, you really wanna have the same goals
in mind. Right? And and you have to
have a sure view of what success looks
like. And success
for us really has to be serving our
patients better every day and finding new ways
to do that. So so that's kind of
almost you could say that sort of table
stakes. For us, the other things that we

(05:35):
start to look for are even though we
offer over 3,000 tests from our department of
laboratory medicine and pathology, which I had the
privilege of being the chair of before I
took this role in February 2023,
that's they that's not everything. We we we
can't really there still are, when you go
out there, you know, tests and and questions
that doctors have that might not have we

(05:56):
not have a test,
to answer within
our own department. So what we look for
also then are are are companies or or
diagnostic entities that are that have
things that are complimentary
to to to our our offerings, you know,
so that we can have a much more
more be more of a one stop shop.
Because, you know, when you think about coming
to Mayo Clinic, you think about, boy, I

(06:17):
have a, you know, I I I have
a heart condition. I wanna be able to
go there and see all the different kind
of specialists that can answer the question about
my heart or can tell me it's actually
not your heart. It's some other organ system
or something else, and they can tell it.
That's the way that Mayo Clinic works, and
that's the way that really wanna work for
Mayo Clinic
so that's the the key thing then. Is

(06:39):
it is it someone that's gonna help us
have that kinda complete offering
in a disease state? And then and then
last but not least is, yeah, is trust.
Right? You have to have and health care,
one of the key
animal in life. But especially when you're choosing
health care, trust is key. Right? And so
really need to looking for those that, are

(06:59):
invested in quality,
invested in good business practices,
you know, all those other sorts of things
that that would be consistent with how we
wanna operate. So I would say those are
the things we look for. Yeah. I think
that's the that's the trifecta. Right? Values, trust,
and then innovation. What's what's being enabled.
I wanna get a little bit into the
nitty gritty here of what you're currently doing

(07:20):
and how you're doing it.
You've taken
a platform approach to your organization, the the
the term platform approach. Can you talk a
little bit about what that actually means and
why you decided to go that
route? Well, you know, it's, yeah. It's a
great another great question. It it's it's a
term that's
out there a lot, but and, you know,

(07:40):
what does it actually mean to be moving
from a pipeline business to a platform business?
So, yeah, again, I've been on staff here
a long time. Mayo Clinic Laboratories has been
in existence for about fifty years. For the
first, you know, forty five, forty six years
of its existence,
its primary function was as I described it,
and that is to make sure that if

(08:01):
a patient
wants to send a test to Mayo Clinic
for us to be able to run it
within our academic department, we were able to
do so, get it here safely, efficiently,
run the test, get the answer back to
the patient, complete the cycle in terms of
billing and all those sorts of things that
happen with a with an episode of care,
which is all, you know, great. But that's

(08:22):
a really pipeline. And when we try to
talk about the collaboration and all the value
that we see in collaboration,
this would we really the charge and it
fits actually with the direction of Mayo Clinic
and our strategic intent as a whole,
under doctor Perugia, is to evolve
to be a platform model, which means that
if you're using Mayo Clinic Laboratories
and there's a diagnostic test that you could

(08:43):
really benefit from
that is offered by another entity, another company,
another laboratory,
you can access that through us. So it's
moving really to more of like an Amazon
would be the the probably the simplest way
to think about it. Right? You can go
to Amazon,
and you can really interact with a variety
of different purveyors of of of goods,
through their aperture. Right? So for us, it's

(09:05):
you can now interact with a lot of
different diagnostic companies to get access to the
tools that you need,
to answer your questions. But, again, it's it's
a lot different than than Amazon
in that we're really it's in that trusted
space, and and it there's a lot of
guidance that happens there too. So by coming
to Mayo Clinic Laboratories, yes, you get access
to these other innovations
that our collaborators and tests that our collaborators

(09:27):
have, but you're doing it in the context
of of of Mayo Clinic. So you're getting
guidance on you can have the trust, the
things we just talked about that we look
for from a collaborator,
and more importantly, even the knowledge about how
to use that diagnostic. Right? What's the best
way to to use that test to answer
your question?
Yeah. Absolutely. And you've touched on the the
Amazon piece, obviously, and what you just mentioned

(09:48):
in terms of the trusted space. Are there
any other benefits that that are really key
that you can elaborate on that folks should
really think about throughout the platform approach?
Yeah. Well, I think it's I mean, the
to me, the real value is that you
can have we can really
execute on our mission and our aspiration that
is in need of the patient come first.

(10:10):
You know,
as a Mayo Clinic physician where there's teamwork
is a key, we're we're actually called consultants
because we are expected to consult with any
other doctor if they think that they need
that our opinion to help with for the
care of a patient. So it's a very
holistic approach to how you think about a
patient and and delivering their making diagnosis and

(10:30):
delivering care.
This platform, the real value is that allows
us to take the same approach now to
diagnostics. Right? That is a very holistic. So
rather than thinking about
your senior doctor, you and your doctor think
you might have this set of conditions and
you just kinda go through a laundry list
and the check boxes of what chest is
should I order here, what chest should I
order there, it's much more holistic about I

(10:52):
have this question. I can go to one
spot, and I can really understand how to
answer that question without having to go through
the laundry list and thinking about test as
individual
sorts of pieces of information. Right? You're gonna
get delivered back a package, if you will,
that's an answer.
That benefits patients clearly. Right? It it because
it makes their it takes a lab from

(11:12):
being something that's creating information
to something that's really helping to guide their
their journey in health care. It helps, hopefully,
over time, us getting away from very episodic
care to really more longitudinal care. And that's
something we're seeing now in a lot of
diseases. I think cancer is a great example
where we're getting more effective treatments for cancer.
We're detecting cancer earlier, which means now cancer

(11:34):
is really transitioning from
an episodic disease where you have surgery and
then go home and wait to there's a
continuum of care. And so now that with
the advent of what's being termed liquid biopsy,
but basically blood based tests that can look
for cancer in in your blood, the signals
of cancer in your blood, We can now
think about caring for a cancer patient longitudinally

(11:54):
through the lab, where we make the diagnosis,
we do the testing to say what kind
of cancer it is and what kind of
therapies will be most effective. And now through
a single holistic offering around around cancer, we
can also then offer the blood test that
will say, do you need to go back?
Or, you know, have you what's your response
to your treatment? Do you need to go
back for more treatment? We can detect it
earlier. Our partnership with Lucent is a perfect

(12:15):
example of this kind of technology. So it's
really value to the patient. Right? And then
ultimately, honestly,
it creates much more value for the labs
themselves.
Because the the challenge that we have in
the clinical laboratory
is that most people, including doctors, think about
the one test that they order from a
lab or the set of tests that they
order from a lab, which actually undermines the

(12:36):
value because of of the lab. Because a
lab really should be seen as is creating,
you know, over 70% of the information in
health records. So it really should be viewed
in this very holistic way. Right? So so
that's the value, I think, of going to
the platform model. It really benefits all the
stakeholders in diagnostics.
Yeah. Thank you so much for explaining that.
There's so many layers to this, I think,

(12:57):
that make this so impactful throughout. And then
you mentioned the collaboration piece sitting on top
of it and then collaboration
enabling innovation really on what we've talked about.
Doctor Maurice, thank you so much for your
time and insights today. This was fantastic. Thanks
for taking the time. Oh, thank you for
having me. I'm happy to come back anytime.
It's, I really enjoy I'm passionate about this
stuff as you could probably tell, and I

(13:17):
enjoy talking about it and enjoy the opportunity.
So thank you. We we love collaborating. Right?
There you go. And we also want to
thank our podcast sponsor, Mayo Clinic Laboratories, and
you can tune into more podcasts from Becker's
Healthcare by visiting our podcast page at becker'shospitalreview.com.
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