MMDA Scientific Program: Canopy by Hilton Minneapolis Mill District, May 15, 2026

Thresher Meeting Room, Canopy lower level

Agenda:

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Bradley Erickson, MD PhD, is Professor of Radiology and Director of the Mayo AI Laboratory. He did his MD and PhD degrees at the Mayo Clinic and is now on staff there in the department of radiology. He has an active research lab focusing on the development and application of deep learning methods to medical images for the better care of patients. Dr. Erickson has received numerous awards for his work, including the NVidia global impact award and the SIIM gold medal. He has been Chair of the American Board of Imaging Informatics, President of the Society of Imaging Informatics in Medicine, and is a founder of 3 startup companies. His presentation today will describe some of the important concepts around deep learning and AI and how this is likely to impact medicine.

Dr. C. Sophia Albott, MD, MA received a BA in Neuroscience from Grinnell College in Iowa and then graduated with a BA and a Master in Philosophy from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium. She completed medical school at the University of Minnesota, where she also did her residency in psychiatry and her T32 postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric comorbidity. She is an adult psychiatrist with a clinical focus on neuromodulation, deep transcranial magnetic stimulation (dTMS), treatment-resistant depression, mood disorders, translational neuroscience, women's mental health, and comorbid psychiatric disorders. Her research focuses on investigating novel treatments and diagnostic tools for characterizing pathological responses to trauma, which focuses on post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. She is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology and a member of the American Society of Hispanic Psychiatry. Within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, she is the deputy vice-chair for research. She is also co-founder of the Junior Research Faculty Peer Mentoring Group and the Early Career Investigator Peer Mentoring Group.

Dr Nico van Zyl,  is the SVP and Chief Medical Director for RGA. He obtained his medical degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1995 and completed his internship at Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town.  After a period in General Practice he moved to the United Kingdom where he trained and worked in various psychiatric specialties including acute adult crisis resolution and psychiatric home treatment, liaison psychiatry and addiction psychiatry in London and the surrounding Home Counties for 8 years before returning to South Africa in December 2008. He joined Hannover Re Africa based in Johannesburg shortly after his return. He moved to Denver, Colorado in 2017 to join the Hannover Re US office and has since relocated to the St Petersburg area in Florida where he currently resides. He joined RGA in July 2025. He is board certified in Insurance Medicine. He has a special interest in the use of technology in medicine and also holds a Masters degree in Health Informatics from the University College London.

Dr. Guru Trikudanathan, MD,  is a therapeutic endoscopist who specializes in pancreatobiliary diseases particularly pancreatic endotherapy. His clinical and research interests are in optimal management of acute and chronic pancreatitis particularly their complications besides pancreatic cysts and  autoimmune pancreatitis. He is internationally recognized for his seminal contributions in necrotizing pancreatitis which had changed the practice paradigm. He has over 160 peer reviewed publications, majority as the principal author in several high impact journals. He was the recipient of  American Pancreas Association young investigator award in 2020. He is currently the co-principal investigator for the University of Minnesota clinical site in two NIH sponsored consortia in acute and chronic pancreatitis. He is currently the section lead for the Advanced Endoscopy section and the co-director for Total Pancreatectomy and Islet Auto Transplantation program at UMN

Dr. Ayalew Tefferi, MD is a professor of medicine and a consultant in hematology at Mayo Clinic Rochester. He has received numerous honors and awards for his teaching and research excellence, including the William Summerskill Award, the Dean's Recognition Award, and the Teacher of the Year Hall of Fame.

Dr. Tefferi is truly a world renowned expert in the field of hematology. He has served as a principal investigator or co-investigator for numerous clinical trials and research grants related to, hematological malignancies, myeloproliferative disorders, and porphyrias. He has been a physician author for UpToDate, and has published over 1000 articles, book chapters, reviews and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals, such as Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

Dr. Judy Finney, MD is a board-certified internist and interventional cardiologist who worked in private practice in Michigan and Arizona until she changed careers in 2012 to join life insurance medicine.  She has worked for Allstate Life and Retirement, Protective Life, and currently Northwestern Mutual as a VP Medical Director. She has particular interests in education and served as a parttime faculty member in internal medicine at Midwestern University medical school, and an online program for PA’s and NP’s. She has also participated actively in AAIM’s committee on Publicity and PR and promoted AAIM at the SEAK conferences for physicians exploring nonclinical careers. She has also served as president in the past of MMDA as well as a cardiology workshop codirector at AAIM triennials in 2015 and 2025.

Thursday evening

• Reception 5:45p, Canopy Pantry
• Dinner at 6:30p, Umbra Retreat

Friday evening

• Reception 5:45p, meet in the lobby at 5:20 for walkers.
• Dinner 7:00p, Aster River Room

Attire: business casual for Thursday dinner and Friday session, casual for Friday evening.