Mayo Clinic ups care via medical records

The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and UnitedHealth Group will form an alliance to merge medical records, officials say. UnitedHealth officials told the Minneapolis Star Tribune the venture would focus on "fundamental issues that may help standardize care" in the hopes of lowering costs. Veronique Roger, head of the Mayo Clinic's Center for Science of Health Delivery, said the partnership could focus on such things as analyzing the steps needed for successful hip replacement surgery or ways to get patients to consistently take their medications. By joining forces with UnitedHealth, the largest provider of U.S. medical coverage, Mayo officials said they hope to see improvements "on a grand scale" in the efficiency of healthcare delivery.