Can you imagine a world in which all the major advances in medical research and care delivery pioneered by Mayo Clinic just never happened? It would certainly be a very different world. In fact, so many game-changing breakthroughs and innovations have happened here over the decades that it’s safe to say your life has been touched by progress made at Mayo Clinic, even if you or a family member have never been a patient.

Consider the multi-specialty medical practice — a team of doctors and nurses, all experts in different fields, working together as one team to put the needs of the patient first. That may seem common today, but it was a true innovation when our founder, Dr. William Worrall Mayo, instituted the approach at his hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, about 150 years ago.

The belief of complete patient care continued with the unified patient record. In the past, each individual doctor kept their own sets of files on their patients. Working with Dr. Henry Plummer, Mayo Clinic’s Mabel Root created a records system that, again, puts the patient first. Thanks to her hard work, Mayo Clinic doctors could access complete and up-to-date information on all the care their patients were receiving. Today, that kind of system is the standard everywhere, but it was developed at Mayo Clinic.

Those examples are still only the start.

Imagine not having a unified scale to measure the severity of a cancer diagnosis, or if nobody had ever discovered that insulin can be used to treat diabetes. What if doctors had never isolated cortisone, and worked out how to use it to treat arthritis, asthma, inflammatory bowel disease or many other conditions? Or finally perfected the skills and technology that changed open-heart surgery from science fiction into an everyday procedure?

The first FDA-approved hip replacement surgery. The ketogenic diet. The g-suit that allows jet pilots to maneuver at high speed without losing consciousness. The first noninvasive DNA test for early colorectal cancer detection.

All those and so many other remarkable insights, advances and “firsts” are proof that when it comes to innovation in research and care, Mayo Clinic stands apart in a category of one. These remarkable stories are due in large part to our remarkable benefactors who have faith in us and give generously to make our work possible.