Luther alumnus Steve Demuth to present guest lecture Nov. 9

As technology develops, so too does the use of digital medicine and personalizing care. Luther College alumnus Steve Demuth, chief technology officer and head of the office of IT strategy and architecture at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, will present “Digital Medicine: Why Doctors and Computer Scientists Increasingly Need Each Other,” at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9, in the Franklin W. Olin Room 102 on the Luther campus.

Sponsored by Luther’s Computer Science Department, the presentation is open to the public with no charge for admission.

During his presentation, Demuth will discuss how information technology””especially advances in computer science, communications and data science””has brought capabilities to medicine that are transforming the way healthcare is delivered.

“From mobile interactive care plans empowering informed self-care in the home environment, to artificial intelligence that makes diagnosis and treatment decisions more closely tailored to individual circumstances, to advanced analysis in genomes that are making individualized medicine real in the clinic, computation and networking are at the core of medical innovation today,” said Demuth.

Demuth will discuss that innovation and other opportunities for computer and data science, as well as the paradox of how digital medicine is at the same time personalizing care and increasingly delivering care through technology-driven, impersonal mechanisms.

As one of three leads for Mayo’s artificial intelligence task force, Demuth is responsible for Mayo’s overall information technology strategy and roadmap, and for enterprise and business architecture. Prior to joining the Mayo staff in 2014, Demuth was the chief architect and senior technical staff member in the decision management division of IBM. He has worked with several Fortune 50 companies in the healthcare and financial sectors.

Demuth graduated from Luther with a Bachelor of Arts in physics and mathematics in 1977. He served as the director for administrative computing at Luther from 1977 to 1992.

A national liberal arts college with an enrollment of 2,050, Luther offers an academic curriculum that leads to the Bachelor of Arts degree in more than 60 majors and pre-professional programs. For more information about Luther visit the college’s website: http://www.luther.edu.