Mayo Clinic Neurology · Neurocritical Care · STR-X Labs MMXXVI
About

W. David Freeman
M.D.

Four AI laboratories at Mayo Clinic. One mission: deliver Mayo-caliber care to rural, remote, and underserved populations — across borders, across resources, beyond Earth.

Neurology Neurocritical Care AI · Robotics · XR Global Health Space Health
Operating Framework

Augmented Human Intelligence(AHI)

Freeman's Modification: (human + computer + AI + scientific method) ≫ human alone.

An extension of Friedman's Theorem in bioinformatics and J. Stuart Hunter's modification — the through-line beneath every laboratory below. AI does not replace the clinician; it augments, debiases, and accelerates them.

Diagram showing Friedman's Theorem (brain + computer > brain), J. Stuart Hunter's modification (brain + computer + Scientific Method > brain), and Freeman's modification for AI Informatics (brain + computer + GPT + Scientific Method ≫ brain alone), referencing PMID 19074294 and 20069759
Figure 1 · Bioinformatics → AI Informatics · PMID 19074294, 20069759
The Four Laboratories

Built for the patient who is furthest from the academic center.

01
SAHVAI Lab Gerstner Scholars Program

Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Volumetric AI · with Dr Bradley Erickson (Mayo holds the patent)

A multimodal AI for intracranial hemorrhage. SAHVAI segments and quantifies seven hemorrhage compartments on non-contrast CT, then derives an early SAH score (eSAH) from age, GCS at admission, and bleed volume — built on a working cohort of approximately 1,700 cases for validation. The aim: every patient with a bleeding brain — Jacksonville or Jakarta — should receive the same diagnostic precision available at Mayo.

Funder · with thanks

Gerstner Scholars Program in AI Translation at Mayo Clinic, established by a $25M endowment from Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. and family / Gerstner Philanthropies. The program supports junior and early-career clinician-investigators translating AI into clinical practice.

SAHVAI Lab site Gerstner Philanthropies Mayo announcement Publications · PubMed
02
ASTRAL Schulze AI Innovation Award · 2025

AI-Surgical Training & Mixed Reality Avatar Laboratory · with Dr Giselle Coelho

We deploy 5D motion capture and AI-powered simulation to immortalize neurosurgical expertise — encapsulating fleeting moments of mastery into perpetual teaching tools that deliver Mayo Clinic-caliber training to surgeons worldwide, regardless of geography or resources. Inaugural recipient of the 2025 Richard M. Schulze Innovation Awards in AI at Mayo Clinic.

Funder · with thanks

Richard M. Schulze Innovation Awards in Artificial Intelligence at Mayo Clinic, made possible by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation, established by Mr Schulze (founder of Best Buy) in 2004 to support education, human and social services, health, and medicine.

Dr Giselle Coelho and Dr W. David Freeman, 2025 Richard M. Schulze Scholars in Artificial Intelligence
Figure 2 · Mayo Clinic, 2025 Richard M. Schulze Scholars in AI
2025 Schulze AI awardees Schulze AI Awards program About the awards
03
STR-X Labs Mayo Clinic · 2023

Simulation · Telemedicine · Robotics · eXperiential Education — with Dr Giselle Coelho

A Mayo Clinic program directed at scaling healthcare to Rural, Remote, Underserved (RRU) areas worldwide. STR-X fellows acquire interprofessional skill-sets across telemedicine and telerobotics, haptic feedback interfacing, and emerging immersive learning platforms, designing projects that address global healthcare disparities. Our flagship work includes STAR-X (AI on-device) — local, open-source edge models that triage symptoms offline — paired with hybrid AI + robotics methods for the greater good.

STR-X Venn 2023: four overlapping domains — Simulation, Telemedicine, Robotics, eXperiential education — with associated technologies and methods. Subtitle: The Challenge — Close the Gaps.
Figure 3 · STR-X Venn 2023 · close the gaps · from the STR-X manifesto

It's not just innovation — it's transformation.W. David Freeman, MD · Mayo Clinic Magazine, August 2025

STR-X Fellowship at Mayo Mayo Magazine: Using XR to Transform Care @STRXLabs on X
04
ARPA-H Federal · Distribution Unlimited

PARADIGM · Task-Assisted Guidance (TAG) — with Dr Leslie Simon

Within ARPA-H's PARADIGM program (Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed and InteGrated Medical care), our group serves as a Task-Assisted Guidance (TAG) team — Technical Area 5 — building intelligent task-guidance software that turns a generalist into a just-in-time specialist for procedures beyond their usual training. Our 2026 goal: 15 multimodal agentic AI use cases, with extensions toward space-health applications for crewed missions.

What if we could deliver advanced hospital-level care to every rural county in America?ARPA-H · The Big Question of PARADIGM

Funder · with thanks

ARPA-H — the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health — through the PARADIGM program, led by Program Manager Bon Ku, MD MPP (Resilient Systems Office). PARADIGM funds twelve performer teams across five technical areas to deliver hospital-level care to rural communities via a rugged mobile platform.

ARPA-H PARADIGM program launch slide showing Program Manager Bon Ku, MD MPP, and TA5 leads W. David Freeman, MD and Leslie Simon, DO
Figure 4a · ARPA-H · PARADIGM program launch · Resilient Systems Office
PARADIGM care delivery platform vision: advanced imaging, multi-cancer screening, perinatal care, hemodialysis, ER on wheels, and additional use cases delivered via a multipurpose mobile vehicle
Figure 4b · The audacious vision: a multipurpose, scalable platform
ARPA-H PARADIGM TA5: Intelligent Task Guidance — upskill healthcare workers to perform tasks beyond their usual training
Figure 4c · TA5 · Intelligent Task Guidance · our group
Current Project · Audacious

Our active PARADIGM TAG project moves beyond isolated procedures into a full respiratory deterioration pathway — early recognition and triage, intermediate non-invasive interventions, video laryngoscopy with AI feedback, multimodal diagnostic fusion, telemedicine mission control, and downstream supply-chain logistics. The aim: anyone — anywhere — given the right augmentation, can manage an unstable airway with measurable clinical accuracy, procedural success, and system robustness.

The Respiratory TAG Ecosystem: a holistic care delivery deterioration pathway across early recognition and triage, intermediate non-invasive therapies, video laryngoscopy as default, multimodal diagnostic fusion, telemedicine mission control, downstream supply-chain planning, and system efficacy metrics including clinical accuracy, procedural success, and system robustness
Figure 5 · The Respiratory TAG Ecosystem · current PARADIGM deliverable

First TAG deliverable (2024): AMIRA, a multimodal LLM + computer-vision system that lets anyone perform phlebotomy and IV access — the most common procedure in medicine — with real-time AI guidance.

AMIRA phlebotomy procedure setup with camera, tablet, voice interaction, and vein-vision difficulty stratification
Figure 6 · AMIRA · phlebotomy & IV access (2024)
ARPA-H PARADIGM program 12 PARADIGM teams selected Program Manager: Bon Ku, MD