Two healthcare heavyweights are combining forces to form a technology center they hope will, over the next 10 years, “fundamentally advance the pace” of discovery in medical science and healthcare innovation.
Cleveland Clinic and IBM jointly announced the development March 30, calling the project the “Discovery Accelerator.”
The plan is for Cleveland Clinic to supply clinical, research and educational firepower while IBM maintains an onsite presence for managing the Discovery Accelerator’s computing and other technical resources.
As part of the latter, IBM will install its circuit-based, 20-qubit quantum computer called Q System One.
This will be followed in subsequent years by installations of the company’s 1,000+ qubit quantum systems elsewhere in Cleveland, allowing the new partnership to collaborate with universities, government bodies, healthtech vendors, startups and other interested entities.
IBM chairman and CEO Arvind Krishna hints that the partnership may not have come about if not for the urgency revved by the COVID crisis.
“At the same time, science is experiencing a change of its own, with high-performance computing, hybrid cloud, data, AI and quantum computing being used in new ways to break through longstanding bottlenecks in scientific discovery,” Krishna says.
The Discovery Accelerator also will serve as the technology foundation for another new Cleveland Clinic undertaking, the Global Center for Pathogen Research & Human Health. This launched last month with $500 million from the State of Ohio, Jobs Ohio and Cleveland Clinic, according to the March 30 announcement.
Ohio’s lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, says the new partnership “will put Cleveland, and Ohio, on the map for advanced medical and scientific research, providing a unique opportunity to improve treatment options for patients and solve some of our greatest healthcare challenges.”
Full announcement here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.