Helping Patients Through Innovation

In our Inventor Chronicles video series, Cleveland Clinic inventors share their backgrounds, goals, challenges, and advice for new inventors. Each episode follows a different inventor’s journey with Cleveland Clinic Innovations, from initial inspiration to life-changing invention.

“I myself enjoy innovations. Something you do that nobody else has thought of. Nobody else has done before… The Cleveland Clinic, of course, is at the cutting edge. We are not following what people do, we are creating our own paths so people can follow them.” – Samir Kapadia, MD, Chair, Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic.

“Every innovator has a different way to create something to provide the patient a better solution for their problems in an easy and practical way.” – Jose Navia, MD, Director, Heart and Vascular Center and Chair, Cardiovascular Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Florida.

Dr. Kapadia and Dr. Navia collaborated with Cleveland Clinic Innovations to create Mitria Medical’s Subvalvular Spacer™, a nitinol braid designed to sit at the hinge of the posterior leaflet of the heart with top aspect sitting on the atrial side for anchoring, and the bottom (larger) aspect sitting under the leaflet to provide broad support to the displaced leaflet and associated subvalvular apparatus moving them anteriorly to restore coaptation and reduce mitral regurgitation. Mitral regurgitation is the most common valve disease worldwide. It occurs when leaflets of the mitral valve do not close properly, causing “leakage” from the left ventricle to the left atrium. Mitral regurgitation leads to poor prognosis for patients as the heart is forced to work harder, leading to heart failure and increased mortality.

“We have the help of partners at Cleveland Clinic Innovations to move this new product forward in the step of commercialization in the future,” says Dr. Navia about the support inventors have in bringing their invention to market. “Taking an idea to reality requires a team of people. It’s not possible to do it individually. The most challenging part is it takes time… the innovator has to be persistent, flexible to change, to adapt and move things. We are doing new things every day in our clinical practice so innovation is the only way we survive and we can work as hard as we do. That’s the most important thing, helping the patient in the future,” shared Dr. Kapadia and Dr. Navia on the importance of having a tenacious mindset to bring an idea to reality to help improve the lives of patients.

Cleveland Clinic Innovations brings the best ideas from the brightest minds in medicine to patients around the world by connecting inventors and their ideas with strategic industry partners to create products that transform the future of healthcare. Since our inception in 2000, Cleveland Clinic Innovations has helped inventors receive 2,400+ patents, executed more than 800 licenses and launched over 100 start-ups to turn ideas into next-generation products for patients.