Mayo Clinic appears to be employing crowdsourcing techniques to figure out strategies for its new Mall of America location, plans for which are being developed.
On a web page dedicated to the gathering of ideas about the location in Bloomington, Minnesota, inside the largest mall in America in terms of retail space, Mayo Clinic says the following: “We plan to bring something different to the mall, and we need your help to find out how we can best meet your healthcare needs in this new environment.”
The page lists 12 questions in the form of links that a user can click on and provide an answer as a comment. The questions include:
- What could Mayo Clinic offer you at MOA?
- How would you like to be connected to Mayo Clinic?
- What are your greatest healthcare needs?
And the suggestions are piling up. In response to the first question, Sandra Burrowes, a commentator, recommends the following: “Walk-in medical screenings, personalized health plans … augmented reality experiences that give us a glimpse inside-the-body of healthy lifestyle vs. unhealthy lifestyle choices.”
Another named Emily chimes in: “Also, it would be nice [for] someone [to] sit down with older folks and go through all their meds and doctors’ orders. I spent 2 hours sifting through papers and looking stuff up online for my [mother-in-law], who has never used a computer in her life, because her doctors orders were so vague, and she’d seen three different specialists over 3 days. She was totally confused.”
One named Gabriel Yeager concludes: “I believe Mayo Clinic Mall of America will best benefit the community as a Healthy Living Center and Rehabilitation Center.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
While the effort to gather ideas from the public is under way online, it’s not an online-only strategy. This summer the Clinic plans to unveil the “Create Your Mayo Clinic Health Experience at MOA,” which it describes as a “prototype space designed to gather input and help inform the development of the permanent facility” Mayo Clinic plans to build during the phase 2 expansion of the mall. In that space, people will have an opportunity to do the following, among other things:
- Interact with touch-screen health applications designed to entertain, inform and educate.
- Engage with trained healthcare-experienced navigators who will help assemble the tools people need to improve their health and well-being.
- Take part in health education classes.
