ROCHESTER, Minn. – The next step in the technology collaboration announced last week between the Mayo Clinic and IBM is to introduce new types of data into the computing system.

"We've already integrated the health records, and now we are driving to bring in new types of data, including genomic data," said Matthew McMahon, an IBM spokesman.

IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano and Dr. Denis Cortese, president and chief executive officer, Mayo Clinic examine a 1/7 scale model of IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer.

"What IBM and Mayo are aiming to do is to apply the most advanced technologies – like IBM Research-developed algorithms – to show what you can do when you mine and analyze that wealth of data and link them to new kinds of medical information," said McMahon. "Together, the companies aim to change healthcare forever."

Mayo Clinic and IBM announced last week a broad collaboration to accelerate advances in patient care and research with an aggressive set of technology initiatives. The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Bush administration proposed to computerize all health records in the country.

"The administration's proposal is just the tip of the iceberg," said McMahon. "Mayo Clinic is far beyond that effort. In fact, Mayo already has the world's largest federated database of health records - 4.4. million patients."

In a multi-year collaboration during which IBM and the Mayo Clinic will invest millions of dollars per year in manpower, research and technology, the two institutions aim to transform the traditional, protocol-driven, overly generic approach to medical treatment and adopt a new model of personalized care.

"Our collaboration with IBM is focused on advancing the Mayo Clinic mission in the areas of patient care and research," Denis Cortese, MD, president and chief executive officer, Mayo Clinic, said last week. "We are at a point with standards in technology and new genomic based analytic techniques where we can achieve more in the next 10 years than we've achieved in the last 100, and we see in IBM a partner with a very unique capacity to deliver expertise and innovation."

In making the announcement, IBM, too, pointed to the benefits the entire healthcare system stood to gain from the Mayo-IBM alliance.

"Our partnership with Mayo Clinic is deeply important to IBM. It exemplifies our core value of 'innovation that matters' - not only advancing the frontiers of computing, but also changing the future of healthcare delivery, and of the healthcare industry," said Samuel J. Palmisano, chairman and chief executive officer of IBM. "There is no industry where the potential for reinvention is more exciting, or where the impact on society will be greater, than medicine and life sciences."