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Mayo Clinic residents and fellows in the Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy participate in a program day featuring hands-on, experiential learning.
Mayo Clinic residents and fellows in the Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneurship Academy participate in a program day featuring hands-on, experiential learning.

March 31, 2026

By Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science staff

Innovation in healthcare begins with curiosity — and with caregivers who are trained to ask better questions. At Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education, the Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Academy helps residents and fellows build an entrepreneurial mindset by integrating hands‑on innovation, collaboration, and problem‑solving directly into their training.

That spirit was on full display during Platform Experience Day on Dec. 18, where trainees explored real‑world scenarios on Mayo Clinic Platform to see how de‑identified, large‑scale data can inform clinical decisions, accelerate research, and spark innovation in everyday practice. Experiences like this — hallmarks of the CIE program — foster leadership skills in trainees, accelerating their ability to affect meaningful change in the practice. 

Hands-on exploration meets real-world questions

During the immersive experience, trainees rotated through case studies and brainstorming exercises, then tested their own questions on the Platform. They learned to define cohorts, explore associations, check feasibility, and examine population‑level outcomes such as hospitalizations and emergency department visits. These kinds of early indicators emerge when exploring data through Mayo Clinic Platform, one of the largest sets of de-identified healthcare data in the world.

One team explored how often patients completed their pre‑appointment lab work before seeing an endocrinologist. Using Platform, they quickly created "case" and "control" groups based on whether labs were completed before or after the visit. From there, they could easily compare the number of consults in each group, see who referred patients, and understand why patients were being sent to Endocrinology in the first place. The process showed how helpful Platform can be for answering practical clinical questions without the burden of manual chart review.

Participating in this experience significantly reinforced my belief that digital health and data-driven medicine are not simply future concepts, but essential components of modern clinical care. It highlighted how much high-quality data we already generate — across labs, imaging, genomics, and clinical documentation — and how transformative it can be when those data are meaningfully integrated rather than siloed.

Leticia Sandoval, M.D.
CIE Academy participant

Leticia Sandoval, M.D.

Creating superusers who accelerate progress

Residents and fellows who participated in Platform Experience Day are becoming "super users" who can serve as go‑to resources in their departments. CIE created guidance for Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education leaders on how Platform-trained learners can support innovation within their departments, leveraging the trainees' new expertise when program directors may not have had the time to dive into the Platform as much as the trainees did.

"If trainees know the pathway and have baseline experience, they can jump two or three steps ahead," says Rena Hale, Ph.D., director of the Clinical Innovation and Entrepreneurship program. "They're not stuck asking, 'What is this? 'They're already applying it to real problems."

During the event, trainees used the basic version of Mayo Clinic Platform to explore their own questions and get a sense of what the tool can reveal. They gained a clear understanding of how to incorporate the Platform into future work, and they also learned that the full version can provide deeper insights with the right guidance.

Evan Wilder, M.D.

Going into the session, I had only a general sense of what the Platform could do. Getting to use it firsthand showed me how powerful it is for looking at large groups of patients and spotting patterns you wouldn't see otherwise.

Evan Wilder, M.D.
Gastroenterology fellow at Mayo Clinic in Arizona and CIE Academy trainee

Building confidence that benefits the institution

As more residents and fellows show interest in hands‑on innovation, Mayo Clinic continues to expand opportunities like these across the organization. The ongoing partnership between Mayo Clinic School of Gradute Medical Education and Mayo Clinic Platform will create even more ways for trainees to explore real‑world questions and build skills that shape their future careers 

CIE is also a part of a growing initiative in Mayo Clinic School of Graduate Medical Education to build additional long-term experiences designed to help trainees shape and differentiate their careers. Similar to CIE, these academies — such as the Clinician Educator Academy and the Resident Leadership Academy — offer structured, yearlong experiences that support professional growth and open doors to new paths within the practice 

Ultimately, says Dr. Hale, Platform Experience Day is about confidence. It equips learners to ask better questions, choose the right tools and move with purpose. "No one walks out a master," she says, "but they do leave with knowledge, experience and the ability to act. That speed and clarity are difference makers for our trainees and for Mayo Clinic."

Rena Hale, Ph.D. leads discussion
Rena Hale, Ph.D. leads discussion
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