Photos courtesy of Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (sign); Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation (aerial); Allina Health (surgery); James Steinkamp (exterior); Scott Streble (research); Children’s Minnesota (child)
Minnesota Specialty Clinics
This feature was written by Studio MSP writers. While some of our advertisers were sourced, no advertiser paid to be included.
The fact that Minnesota is repeatedly rated one of the healthiest states in the nation may leave visitors wondering what’s in the water of our 11,000-plus lakes. We have high quality of life and low uninsured rates. And with heavy hitters like Medtronic, Boston Scientific, and 3M based here, there’s a strong culture of medical technology that fuels innovation and contributes to our No. 2 ranking for Fortune 500 companies per capita in the country.
But did you know that some important milestones in medicine took place here? We were the first to successfully perform open-heart surgery; one of the first adopters of the kangaroo method, also known as the (now-standard) practice of skin-to-skin contact for newborns; and the 12-step treatment model for addressing addiction got its start here on the banks of South Center Lake in Center City.
The North Star State is filled with many “firsts” and “bests,” and our pioneering health care community is no exception. Read on to learn their stories and the many hidden gems that lie within their historical walls. Plus, a look at Minnesota’s own Medical Alley, the future in med-tech innovation.
Mayo Clinic
World's Premiere Medical Destination
Mayo Clinic is a household name with a larger-than-life reputation, known for its excellence in delivering complex care. And its flagship campus—which operates out of downtown Rochester, just over an hour’s drive south from the Twin Cities—has served as something of a global welcome mat, attracting travelers from far and wide. (According to its website, the clinic treats more than 1.3 million patients from all 50 states and 137 countries.) A few years ago, Mayo announced a plan to incite these travelers to “come in and stay awhile,” rolling out a 20-year, $5.6 billion economic initiative that would transform Mayo and its home city into one of the leading medical destinations in the world.
The vision behind the Destination Medical Center is to double the size of the campus and strengthen the city of Rochester into a “vibrant destination city,” steeped in a thriving intellectual and cultural community, and lined with luxury hotels, restaurants, and sporting facilities. What’s billed as the largest public-private economic project in the state of Minnesota will lead to the creation of tens of thousands of new jobs, billions in tax revenue, and double the population. “We plan not only to protect our current status as the world’s premier medical institution,” said Dr. John H. Noseworthy, president and CEO of Mayo, in a press release, “but to expand our highly effective practice model and medical assets to be recognized as a global destination medical center for decades to come.”
In another move to ensure its global medical status, Mayo Clinic opened its sports medicine facility at Mayo Clinic Square in downtown Minneapolis in 2014, and expanded its service, space, and capabilities this past October. The 22,000-square-foot complex provides an integrated, multidisciplinary approach that caters to athletes of all ages and skill levels with sports medicine technology, treatment options, and performance training equipment. The clinic works side by side with pro athletes from the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx.
Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine is the largest, most comprehensive practice in the United States for the prevention and treatment of sports injuries.
Mayo has served as something of a global welcome mat, attracting travelers far and wide. A few years ago, it announced a plan to incite travelers to “come in and stay awhile,” rolling out a 20-year, $5.6 billion economic initiative that would transform Mayo and its home city into one of the leading medical destinations in the world.
Hazelden
Nation's Largest Nonprofit Treatment Provider
The de facto model of care for chemical dependency that was heard and heeded around the world was established in a northeastern pocket of our very own backyard: Center City, Minnesota. “The only places that would treat alcoholism at the time were found within the state hospital system, and they were not exactly treated with kindness, dignity, or respect,” says Dr. Marvin D. Seppala, chief medical officer of Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. “Our founders observed the success of alcoholics anonymous (AA) meetings to develop the treatment model we still use today in addressing addiction.”
Since its founding in 1949, the former 17-room “Old Lodge” has come a long way, earning its status as a national player: Hazelden now claims 17 sites throughout the United States, including Boston, Los Angeles, and Naples, Florida.
“The 12-step program is what got us off the ground, but over time, we’ve been adding treatment models that have been recognized and supported by the National Institute of Health,” Seppala adds.
After nearly 70 years of non-medical care approaches, Hazelden shifted course in 2013 by offering medication-assisted treatment. Just before federal agencies were required to provide training to federal doctors and nurses for prescribing opioid pain medications, the Office of National Drug Control Policy included a description of Hazelden’s evidence-based treatment protocol in a report to the president during the Obama administration—combining medication-assisted treatment with a 12-step orientation and psychotherapies called COR-12.It is currently being instituted in other medical systems across the country, including Kentucky-based St. Elizabeth Healthcare, where the rates of overdose deaths from opioids are especially high.
Today, Hazelden is pioneering another world-first in the industry: Feedback Informed Treatment (FIT), an evidence-based outcome-predictor method that gives counselors the ability to identify a patient’s treatment trajectory in real time.“We’re using this tool to truly objectify the decision-making process and our interventions over time to figure out how different groups of people respond to treatment,” Seppala says. “This is really a breakthrough for our innovation team.”
“We were founded on a 12-step philosophy in the late ’40s when there was really no treatment for addiction; those who battled with it were relegated to the far-off wings of state hospitals.”
—Dr. Marvin D. Seppala, chief medical officer of Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation
Photo by David A. Sherman
A Doctor at University of Minnesota Health
University of Minnesota Health
Good as Gold(y)
The University of Minnesota Health is a catchall name that marks the partnership between University of Minnesota physicians and Fairview Health Services. In other words, the physicians and researchers who are developing world-class breakthroughs in the University of Minnesota Medical School are the same ones working with patients within the University of Minnesota Health’s entire system of hospitals and clinics.
The level of care they provide varies from community sites like University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital and Lakes Cancer Clinic in Wyoming, Minnesota, to the newly established University of Minnesota Health Clinics and Surgery Center, a building that provides nearly 40 different care specialties ranging from family medicine to cancer care, supported by groundbreaking technology and leading providers all under one roof.
“Since our founding, our physicians have achieved so many notable medical and surgical landmarks,” says Dr. Holly Boyer, executive medical director for ambulatory care, University of Minnesota Health, and associate professor of otolaryngology, University of Minnesota Medical School. “Particularly in the fields of cardiovascular surgery, bone marrow and solid organ transplantation, immunology and infectious disease, and neuroscience.”
Of Minnesota’s collective health care providers, 70 percent of them are trained at the University of Minnesota, the only university in the state that has veterinary, pharmacy, and dental colleges, accounting for more than 80 percent of all medical degrees awarded in Minnesota.
“To ensure our continued leadership, the legislature approved an investment in a state-of-the-art, $100 million Health Sciences Education Center,” says Boyer. “The new education center will help us train the next generation of health sciences researchers and enhance teamwork among health professionals across various disciplines and geographies.” It’s been said that the facility will advance integrated health care across our state. The groundbreaking is slated for February 13, 2018.
“Under the Academic Health Center, more than 7,000 students are enrolled in one of our 60-plus health care degree programs,” says Boyer. “So it was no surprise we created the nation’s first coordinating center for interprofessional education in 2012.” That success is reflected in the recognition their doctors receive, she says, like their cancer program and seven other hospital specialties recognized by the industry-esteemed U.S. News & World Report.
A wearer of many “firsts,” the U of M’s educational accomplishments and breakthroughs have played a key role in Minnesota’s medical history. Within their walls the first successful open-heart surgery was performed (1952); the first kidney transplant and first kidney-pancreas transplant took place (in 1963 and 1966, respectively); the vaccine for Lyme disease was developed (1986); and the vibrating vest system that helps cystic fibrosis patients loosen and remove accumulating mucus from their lungs was invented (1988).
The leading research institution is currently working to be the first hospital in the country to implant the Vercise™ Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) System following FDA approval, which is poised to revolutionize treatment for Parkinson’s disease, a condition that affects more than 1 million people in the United States.
Minneapolis Heart Institute
Homeland with Heart
In another instance where Minnesota remains the exception, heart disease is the leading cause of death everywhere in the United States but here. You could chalk it up to our low rates of asthma, obesity, and smoking, and a higher-than-average percentage of residents who walk or bike to work. But behind all those fancy health accolades we regularly garner is a strong presence of doctors, like the ones at Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI) who know a thing or two about keeping the ticker in good working order.
In 1995, about 14 years after its founding, MHI merged with Abbott Northwestern Hospital (now Allina Health), giving it the ability to fully integrate its practice within the hospital system, one of the first cardiology programs in the country to take the leap. “We’ve had a very mutually beneficial relationship with Allina,” says Dr. William Katsiyiannis, president and chairman of cardiology at MHI. “It’s allowed us to not only take care of our patients clinically and have these world-leading programs but offer the research and education we routinely and exhaustively conduct as a part of that mission.”
This move poised MHI to “export their expertise” within an outreach system comprised of 40 locations across the entire state of Minnesota, the Dakotas, western Wisconsin, and Florida, the unofficial snowbird capital where 14,000 Minnesotans migrate to in the wintertime. Meaning if a person has a heart attack in a location hundreds (or in Florida’s case, thousands) of miles away, they should be able to get the same opportunity for life-saving care as someone who lives right next door to an Abbott Northwestern hospital.
“What we’ve been able to do is develop the largest and most sophisticated telemedicine program in cardiology so we can have our patients be seen while they’re miles and miles away,” he says. “They stay connected with our medical records, and we can do some testing without putting them at risk of vulnerability.”
MHI’s contributions to the fight against heart disease rank in the top 1 percent nationwide, in terms of original peer review research studies and medical breakthroughs. In 2015, the first transcatheter mitral valve replacement in the country was performed by the MHI team, which still sees the highest volume of patients in the world for this procedure.
“I asked one of my favorite patients from Florida who she uses for health care when she retires south in the winter months,” says Katsiyiannis, “and she swiftly replied with ‘Delta!’”
Photo courtesy of Children's Minnesota
Kids at Children's Minnesota
Children’s Minnesota
Baby Steps to Better Care
Up until the early 20th century, most child infirmities could not be cured. It wasn’t until the development of children’s hospitals that pediatrics finally became its own medical “specialty,” thanks to visionaries like St. Paul native Dr. Walter Reeve Ramsey. He was one of the very few area pediatricians who devoted his life’s work to child patients under the maxim that “children were not miniature adults, but belong in a realm of their own.” In 1924, the Children’s Hospital of St. Paul officially opened its doors on the corner of Smith Avenue and Walnut Street.
A strong sense of childlike curiosity and top-notch, child-centered care can be attributed to the longevity of Children’s Minnesota, closing in on its centennial birthday. And as one of the largest freestanding pediatric health systems in the United States, it has many milestones to celebrate: one of the first adopters of the kangaroo care method (skin-to-skin contact with newborns), now regularly practiced across the nation; a cystic fibrosis program that regularly ranks among the top 10 in the nation; one of the largest and most comprehensive cardiovascular programs in the region, where the mortality ratio is the second lowest in the nation for cardiac surgery patients; named a Best Children’s Hospital for 2016-2017 by U.S. News & World Report for its pediatric pulmonology program; and the founding place for the pioneering Pediatric Pain, Palliative, and Integrative Medicine Clinic.
“Our pain and palliative care clinic is the first of its kind in the world,” says CMO Dr. Emily Chapman. “Through a combination of traditional integrative modalities like massage and acupuncture in a single comprehensive program, it’s allowed us to change the lives of so many pediatric patients living with intense or chronic pain.”
Not only does Children’s treat children through their teens and into early adulthood, they now boast neonatal survival outcomes that are among some of the best in the country.
“Our Midwest Fetal Care Center is taking care of children before they’re even born,” says Chapman. In 2017, the Midwest Fetal Care Center added open fetal surgery to its pioneering programs. “We’ve so much as undertaken the removal of benign tumors that would otherwise result in a loss of pregnancy,” she says. An open fetal surgery addresses birth defects, some of which could be lethal, while the baby is still growing in the womb. Fewer than a dozen centers in North America routinely perform the surgery.
With a fighting spirit inspired by the smallest of patients, Children’s proves that age is only a number.
Hennepin County Medical Center
A Natural-Born Leader
Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, when “alternative” was synonymous with grunge rock and a forward-thinking mindset, clinical trials for acupuncture as a means of treatment for chronic pain management were well underway at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC). In 1993, HCMC made history as the first conventional medical facility in the United States to open an alternative medicine clinic, providing patients additional health care options within a hospital-based structure. Hospitals everywhere began following suit, combining non-traditional treatments with conventional patient care standards.
Healing centers like the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing and the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing sprung up in the Twin Cities, now recognized leaders in the field. Bloomington-based Northwestern Health Sciences University, which pioneered community-based clinical education, boasts the largest raw herb dispensary in the Midwest, with an inventory of more than 800 raw, powdered, and patent herbs and formulas.
Today, you would be hard-pressed to find a Minnesota health care organization or institution that doesn’t practice some form of integrative medicine.
Sports and Active Medicine
The fittest metro in the nation is home to a healthy community of Orthopedic Clinics.
The Twin Cities topped the charts in 2017 as the fittest metro in the country, according to the American College of Sports Medicine, beating out Washington, D.C. It’s a testament to our active population—one that doesn’t stop moving when the thermometer dips below zero. We have an affinity for winter sports like hockey, fat-tire biking, and cross-country skiing, and we also have to contend with those icy sidewalks. It’s no surprise the Twin Cities has a concentration of nationally recognized orthopedics clinics to help us stay active all year round. Here are three of the top players.
- In the time it takes us to bid our signature “Minnesota goodbye” to 2 million visitors after the Super Bowl, another gleaming sports facility will be opening its door: the soon-to-be official headquarters and home campus of the Minnesota Vikings, Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center and TCO Stadium. “This isn’t just a rehabilitation center, this is about shifting our focus to brain health, vision training, regenerative medicine, nutrition, and chiropractic care,” says Troy Simonson, CEO of Twin Cities Orthopedics. “All of these modalities that make up the sports medicine world.” The center formalizes a 20-year partnership between the Vikings and Twin Cities Orthopedics.
- Summit Orthopedics announced in 2017 that its Vadnais Heights Surgery Center earned the Gold Seal Approval from the esteemed Joint Commission for its Advanced Certification for Total Hip and Total Knee Replacements. “There’s certainly a high demand for these advanced surgeries, but we’re finding that there’s also a demand for exceptional care, accelerated recovery times, and reduced costs,” said CEO Adam Berry in a press release. Summit is one of just two ambulatory surgery centers nationwide to receive the certification.
- Last fall, TRIA Orthopaedic Center celebrated the grand opening of its sports medicine and orthopedics service facility, a 75,000-square-foot, multi-level building where each floor features something new to the orthopedics market: from a hydrotherapy pool on the second level to patient concierge services on the main floor. The center comprises an orthopedic urgent care clinic, a physician therapy center, and an ambulatory surgery center.
Move over, Silicon Valley
Medical Alley is the name for one of the world’s leading health technology clusters, a primo destination that cuts through a 360-mile swath from northern to southern Minnesota and comprises nearly 700 medical device companies that are headquartered or have significant operations here. Heavy hitters like Medtronic, Boston Scientific, 3M, and St. Jude Medical, and a stream of up-and-comers in the medical technology market, all fall within the 23-county area.
The work from trailblazers like Earl Bakken, the founder of Medtronic and inventor of the first wearable pacemaker, and Dahlberg Inc., a predecessor of Miracle-Ear and the first to market in-ear hearing aids, is what set the tone in placing us at the forefront of the medical device field for decades to come.
Thanks to some of our in-demand industries (agriculture, manufacturing, and finance to name a few) and strong presence of supply chain businesses, we’re a state that’s ripe for innovation, contributing to a No. 5 ranking for the number of patents issued, according to U.S. News & World Report. In fact, it’s been said that Minnesota has developed more complex medical devices than anywhere else. Ever.
“Minnesota is a destination for talent, clinical excellence, and health care expertise,” says Shaye Mandle, president and CEO of Medical Alley, on its website. “We need to continue to explore ways to work together. There are real growth opportunities throughout Minnesota.”
