Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. Gianrico Farrugia visited neuRealities

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. Gianrico Farrugia visited neuRealities on September 23 during a tour of Rochester’s innovation district. At One Discovery Square, Sarah Harper, Director of Strategic Partnerships, neuRealities, and Mayo Clinic’s Dr. Nirusha Lachman showed Governor Walz how the Clinical Anatomy AI Expert makes trusted anatomy knowledge available through an interactive experience.

Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, Governor Tim Walz, and Dr. Nirusha Lachman in the neuRealities office. Photo credit: AB Photography.

For a clinician preparing for a procedure or a learner working through a question, access to the right expert at the right moment can make a difference. That challenge is central to neuRealities’ work: scaling trusted knowledge so people can use it at the speed of need.

During the visit, Dr. Lachman demonstrated how the Clinical Anatomy AI Expert brings Mayo Clinic-verified anatomy education into natural dialogue. The experience helps clinicians and learners explore procedure-specific anatomy and get answers grounded in expert knowledge. Sarah Harper, Director of Strategic Partnerships, and our team also showed Governor Walz and Dr. Farrugia how users can inspect the source information behind an answer. The takeaway is clear: when AI shares clinical expertise, verifying where information comes from is essential.

The conversation reflected the range of work taking shape in Rochester. We discussed our co-development with the University of Minnesota Rochester on a Success Coach AI Expert, and how our approach to trusted knowledge supports training and education in other settings. We also discussed our work with the Minnesota National Guard to have its combat medics validate what we're building with Special Operations Command (SOCOM) at Camp Ripley. Across these applications, the goal is consistent: to give people useful access to expertise while making the basis for each answer clear.

Governor Walz’s visit was part of a broader day highlighting Destination Medical Center’s Discovery Square innovation district. The district brings researchers, clinicians, educators, entrepreneurs, and companies into closer contact, creating opportunities to develop and test new ideas together. For neuRealities, those relationships have been central to building our work in Rochester.

Dr. Nirusha Lachman, Mayo Clinic, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Sarah Harper, neuRealities. Photo credit: AB Photography.

We thank Governor Walz, Dr. Farrugia, Patrick Seeb, and Matt Varilek for visiting, and Dr. Lachman for sharing her expertise during the demonstration. We’re also grateful to Destination Medical Center, Mayo Clinic, the University of Minnesota Rochester, the Minnesota National Guard, and the many people across neuRealities who support this work.

See our AI Experts in action: DMC Innovation District Showcase — neuRealities.