Cleveland Clinic and IBM Host Cleveland Discovery & Innovation Forum

Cleveland Clinic, in partnership with IBM, hosted the Cleveland Discovery & Innovation Forum to explore the ecosystem of cutting-edge healthcare and life sciences research powered by high-performance computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing.

The inaugural invitation-only event, held April 23 on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, in Cleveland, Ohio, brought together international leaders in academia, industry and government to share their vision on the frontiers of science and technology that will have a major impact on healthcare in the coming decades. 

Leaders from National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) joined with Cleveland Clinic and IBM to discuss a broad array of topics around discovery, innovation, and technology in the context of healthcare and life sciences.

Highlighted sessions included:

• Keynote address by Renee Wegrzyn, Ph.D., ARPA-H Director
• Fireside Chat with Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., Cleveland Clinic CEO and President, Gary Cohn, IBM Vice Chairman, discussing the organizations’ innovative partnership to advance research through advanced computational technologies.
• Fireside Chat with Erwin Gianchandani, Ph.D., Assistant Director for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, NSF; Dario Gil, Ph.D., Director of Research, IBM, discussing opportunities and challenges of advanced technologies in healthcare: how can tech industry and the healthcare industry work together for a better future.
• Additional sessions covered biomedical breakthroughs accelerated by quantum computing; implementing AI at scale to advance biomedical research; and driving health equity through digital technology

Additionally, the first companies selected by Cleveland Clinic for the Cleveland Clinic Quantum Innovation Catalyzer Program were announced at the event. The new program is designed for start-up companies to explore quantum computing and leverage the technology to make breakthroughs in healthcare. Selected companies were: Algorithmiq, Qradle and Picture Health.

The Cleveland Discovery & Innovation Forum is part of Cleveland Clinic’s and IBM’s 10-year Discovery Accelerator partnership, which is focused on advancing the pace of biomedical research through the use of high-performance computing, AI and quantum computing. A key milestone in the partnership was the unveiling last spring of IBM Quantum System One at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus, the first quantum computer dedicated to healthcare research.

The Discovery Accelerator constitutes the technology foundation of biomedical research occurring as part of the Cleveland Innovation District, which brings the State of Ohio and JobsOhio together with Cleveland’s healthcare and higher education institutions to create jobs, accelerate research and educate the workforce of the future.