The Mayo Clinic: Faith, Hope, Science

Released September, 2018

The Mayo Clinic: Faith – Hope – Science tells the story of a unique medical institution that has been called a “Medical Mecca,” the “Supreme Court of Medicine,” and the “place for hope where there is no hope.”

The Mayo Clinic began in 1883 as an unlikely partnership between the Sisters of Saint Francis and a country doctor named William Worrall Mayo after a devastating tornado in rural Minnesota. Since then, it has grown into an organization that treats more than a million patients a year from all 50 states and 150 countries.

Dr. Mayo had a simple philosophy he imparted to his sons Will and Charlie: “the needs of the patient come first.” They wouldn’t treat diseases…they would treat people. In a world where healthcare delivery is typically fragmented among individual specialties, the Mayo Clinic practices a multi-specialty, team-based approach that has, from its beginnings, created a culture that thrives on collaboration.

By combining the history of the institution with examples of its values in practice today, the film will make an important contribution to the critical discussions about the delivery of healthcare in America…and the world.

Executive produced by Ken Burns, The Mayo Clinic is a two-hour documentary produced and directed by Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers, produced by Julie Coffman, and written by David Blistein. It will air on PBS on September 25, 2018.

A production of Florentine Films, Ewers Brothers Productions and WETA Washington, DC

Directors: Ken Burns, Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers

Producer: Julie Coffman

Executive Producer: Ken Burns

Writers: David Blistein and Ken Burns

Co-Producers: Erik Ewers and Christopher Loren Ewers

Narrator: Peter Coyote

Editor: Erik Ewers

Director of Photography: Christopher Loren Ewers

Composer: David Cieri