Cleveland Clinic Innovations leaders share insights into the digital technologies currently transforming the healthcare industry. Facing unprecedented challenges, including escalating operational costs and severe workforce shortages, these pioneering technologies are proving essential, delivering practical solutions that enhance efficiency and patient care.
For patients and providers alike, the digital transformation of healthcare is happening just in time.
At the close of 2022, more than 50% of U.S. hospitals were operating at a loss for the first time in history. Expenses are rising annually at double the rate of payer reimbursements, threatening to tip many of them further into the red. By 2025, hospital administrators anticipate a shortage of 400,000 nurses and 80,000 physicians.
As workforce and budget challenges mount, healthcare providers are searching for ways to operate more efficiently without sacrificing the quality of patient care. Cleveland Clinic Innovations exists to nurture and launch technology that marries clinical solutions with market needs. In 2024, the technologies already moving through the pipeline—both at Cleveland Clinic and in the industry as a whole—are poised to meet a chasm of need.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Takes Center Stage
Without question, the top trend in digital health this year is the rise of companies leveraging Generative AI to accomplish a broad range of goals. Jerry Wilmink, PhD, Director of Business Development and Licensing at Cleveland Clinic Innovations, and his team are working with a number of companies that aim to reduce the administrative burden on physicians. Some are developing technologies that listen to interactions between physicians and patients and populate electronic medical records (EMR) automatically, saving physicians hours of daily paperwork and allowing them to be more fully engaged in each interaction. “I’ve been highly impressed by the demos I’ve seen using this technology,” Wilmink says. “In terms of boosting productivity and lightening the load on caregivers, there is immediate value added.”
Other companies are focused on boosting interoperability between providers and payers in a way that protects data, reduces administrative waste and expedites access to care. Still, others are focused on developing platforms and tools that use Generative AI to accelerate the process of drug discovery. Whether it is using AI to design a new compound within specific parameters, or spotting patterns in patient data that can help physicians discern which drugs to prescribe, the applications are seemingly limitless.
One of Cleveland Clinic Innovations’ portfolio companies, Mobius Care, Inc., has developed an AI tool that helps physicians personalize inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) care. “Mobius is a perfect sample of how technology can make treatment more personalized and effective,” says Linda Li, a Ventures partner with Cleveland Clinic Innovations.
In a recent survey conducted by Circle Square Inc., a healthcare consultant, a majority of healthcare organizations said they planned to implement or purchase a generative AI solution this year. In his 2024 “State of the Clinic” address, Tomislav Mihaljevic, MD, CEO, President of Cleveland Clinic, previewed an AI companion tool that will soon accompany patients throughout their visits. While the idea of an AI companion sounds futuristic to many patients, they may already be using AI tools at home without realizing it. In a national survey conducted recently by Cleveland Clinic, 50% of respondents say they use at least one type of technology to monitor their health. Daily step count was the most-tracked health metric, followed by heart rate and calories burned. Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents said they would be comfortable receiving heart health advice from AI technology.
But while the interest in AI is there, a good idea is only the starting point. “AI-based ideas are everywhere now, but success hinges on introducing a solution that integrates into current clinical practice and has a sound revenue model,” says Li.
More Disruptors
Algorithms are also top of mind for digital health leaders at Cleveland Clinic Innovations. Their portfolio includes companies that are building algorithms—some AI-based—with the potential to revolutionize the medical imaging space. MediView XR, Inc., for example, has created an augmented reality (AR) headset that overcomes the limitations of conventional imaging by giving surgeons a 3D view of a patient’s internal anatomy during procedures. “Each of these companies brings something transformative and disruptive to the market,” says Li. Another recent trend in medical innovation, according to Wilmink, is the creation of synthetic data, which combines real data with realistic data to build datasets robust enough to study healthcare challenges at a population level while minimizing privacy risks.
Moving Forward
From populating medical records and generating synthetic data to catalyzing new drug discovery, the technology fostered by Cleveland Clinic Innovations is reinvigorating the practice of medicine. The headwinds facing caregivers, administrators and patients are stronger than ever, but it only takes one effective technology to impact millions of lives.
“As 2024 progresses, we will continue working to ensure that our portfolio companies are prepared to offer solutions that support caregivers, appeal to investors and fill market needs,” says Sonja O’Malley, Senior Director of Innovation at Cleveland Clinic Innovations. “This is gritty, early-stage work, but that’s what makes it exciting. We have the clinical and business expertise in place to invent solutions and share them with the world.”
