Mayo Clinic and Tech Entrepreneurs Join Forces to Launch Ambient Clinical Analytics, First-Ever Bedside Decision Support Platform to Transform Patient Critical Care

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Company backed by $1.1M in seed funding from prestigious Silicon Valley investors, The Social+Capital Partnership, and established health nonprofits: Rock Health and Mayo Clinic

ROCHESTER, MN and SAN FRANCISCO (February 17, 2014) – Today, a Mayo Clinic academic clinical team and seasoned technology entrepreneurs are launching a new company called Ambient Clinical Analytics. The company is focused on providing critical decision support tools for ICU, Operating Room and Emergency Departments right at the patient’s bedside. Ambient Clinical Analytics brings together a trifecta of powerful new technologies, seeded from Mayo Clinic, to change the way critical care providers operate, offering real-time access to important process-of-care information and analytics, lessening the likelihood of procedural failures and saving lives.

The following three technologies are at the core of Ambient Clinical Analytics’ analytics platform for providers:
  • AWARE (Ambient Warning and Response Evaluation) is a clinical EMR tool that reduces information overload by using analytics to filter relevant patient data and supporting best-care practices for ICUs and Operating Rooms.
  • Mayo Clinic YES Board® is a multi-patient management tool that provides real-time situational awareness for Emergency Departments and hospital Pediatric departments.
  • Syndromic Surveillance provides Smart alerts or “sniffers” that address important clinical problems such as sepsis.
  • The Synthesis technology connects patients’ data with mobile devices. This is a component for both the YES Board and AWARE.


Ambient Clinical Analytics is backed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists, The Social+Capital Partnership, and established healthcare organizations Rock Health and Mayo Clinic. Al Berning will lead the company as its Chief Executive Officer. Al is a technology veteran of 20 years, having led PEMSTAR to an IPO in 2000 and helmed Liquid Cool Solutions from 2007 to 2012. He is joined by a world-class founding clinical team from Mayo Clinic, including physicians from many specialties.

“Healthcare providers need efficient and organized tools at their fingertips in order to increase patient safety. Ambient Clinical Analytics is providing the real-time bedside and emergency room technology to accomplish this, which in turn leaves both the provider and patient more satisfied,” said Al Berning, CEO of Ambient Clinical Analytics. “This is a unique opportunity to truly transform how patients are treated. We all desire an organized healthcare operation especially when the emergency department or ICU are involved. Ambient Analytics provides solutions developed by clinicians for clinicians to accomplish this.”

"The amount of data behind AWARE is vast, but unlike any other system I've used, AWARE shows me what I need to see, at the point of care, organized in the way I think. As a result, I can approach patients in a more standardized and organized fashion,” said John M. Litell, DO, attending physician, emergency and critical care medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant director of emergency medicine research at St. Vincent Hospital.

“The impetus behind creating AWARE was that I would arrive in the ICU and spend the first hours just coming to terms with basic patient facts. Other physicians face the same situation. By applying technology to this situation, we found a way to hit the ground running. The application was designed to make transitions of care safer and more efficient,” added Brian Pickering, M.D., a founding clinical team member for Ambient Clinical Analytics.

Ambient Clinical Analytic offers two scientifically validated solutions. The first is the patented Septic Shock Sniffer and the second is the patent pending Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury (VILI) Sniffer. The solutions were developed by founding clinical team members Vitaly Herasevich M.D. Ph.D. and Ognjen Gajic M.D.

Vern Smith, M.D., and Andy Boggust, M.D. founding clinical team members, said, “The fast-paced environment of emergency rooms requires the ability to rapidly assess the needs of patients, the severity of their illnesses, assign staff, and determine next steps. The intent of the YES Board was to make all of those things available at a glance without moving in and out of different applications, allowing for improved patient satisfaction and the ability to deliver care at a lower institutional cost."

Ambient Clinical Analytics will be exhibiting at HIMSS, the healthcare IT event of the year, in Orlando, Florida from February 23-27. The conference is known as a launch pad for cutting edge new products and services in the health IT industry. Mayo Clinic and Drs. Pickering, Heresevich, Gajic, Smith and Boggust have financial interest in the products mentioned in this press release. Revenue Mayo receives is used to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education and research.