The Mayo Clinic just received its largest donation ever, $200 million from Jay Alix, the founder of a corporate consulting firm. The gift is specifically to help offset the cost of medical school for future doctors and to help train them in technologies such as artificial intelligence and genetics, which are becoming central to modern medicine.
The cost of medical school at Mayo is currently around $50,000 a year.
In recognition of the gift, the health care provider is renaming its medical school the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, The StarTribune reports.
Alix currently serves on Mayo’s board of trustees and has said that he admires the provider’s “One-stop shop” approach to treating patients will complex illnesses as well as its doctors, whom he feels consistency put the needs of the patients first.
Alix previously donated $10 million to the clinic in 2008. That donation was specifically to help the Clinic continue to have the opportunity to study illnesses that were not traditionally covered by health insurance and to spend more time talking patients.