Cleveland Clinic and IBM join forces to accelerate new discoveries in healthcare

• Cleveland Clinic and IBM signed a 10-year partnership to accelerate health discoveries using artificial intelligence, cloud computing and quantum computing.

Cleveland Clinic and IBM announced a planned 10-year partnership to establish a joint centre with the mission of accelerating the pace of discovery in healthcare and life sciences through the use of high-performance computing on the hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum computing technologies.

The collaboration is expected to build a robust research and clinical infrastructure to empower big data medical research in an ethical, privacy-preserving way, as well as new discoveries for patient care and novel approaches to public health threats such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through the Discovery Accelerator, researchers plan to use advanced computational technology to generate and analyse data to help enhance research at the new Global Center for Pathogen and Human Health Research in areas such as genomics, single-cell transcriptomics, population health, clinical applications, and chemical and drug discovery.

As part of the collaboration, IBM plans to install its first private-sector, on-premises IBM Quantum System One in the United States, to be located on Cleveland Clinic’s campus in Cleveland. The company also plans to install the first of IBM’s next-generation 1,000+ qubit quantum systems at a facility in Cleveland in the coming years.

The quantum programme will be designed to actively engage with universities, government, industry, start-ups and other relevant organisations. It will leverage Cleveland Clinic’s global enterprise to serve as the foundation of a new quantum ecosystem for science, focused on advancing quantum skills and the centre’s mission.

“Through this innovative collaboration, we have a unique opportunity to bring the future to life,” said Tom Mihaljevic, M.D., CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic. “These new computing technologies can help revolutionise discovery in the life sciences. The Discovery Accelerator will enable our renowned teams to build a forward-looking digital infrastructure and help transform medicine, while training the workforce of the future and potentially growing our economy.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic has spawned one of the greatest races in the history of scientific discovery, one that demands unprecedented agility and speed,” said Arvind Krishna, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM. “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 long-standing bottlenecks in scientific discovery.

“Our new collaboration with Cleveland Clinic will combine their world-renowned expertise in healthcare and life sciences with IBM’s next-generation technologies to make scientific discovery faster, and the scope of that discovery larger than ever,” he added.

“Quantum will make the impossible possible, and when the Governor and I announced the Cleveland Innovation District earlier this year, this was the kind of innovative investment I was hoping would move forward,” said Jon Husted, director of InnovateOhio. “A partnership between these two great institutions 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 biggest healthcare challenges.”

The Discovery Accelerator will serve as the technology foundation for Cleveland Clinic’s new Global Center for Pathogen and Human Health Research, announced last month as part of the Cleveland Innovation District. The centre, supported by a $500 million investment from the State of Ohio, JobsOhio and Cleveland Clinic, brings together a research team focused on broadening understanding of viral pathogens, virus-induced cancers, genomics, immunology and immunotherapies.

It will build on Cleveland Clinic’s existing programmes and expertise, with newly recruited world leaders in immunology, cancer biology, immuno-oncology and infectious disease research, as well as technology development and education. Researchers will expand critical work on studying, preparing for and protecting against emerging pathogens and virus-related diseases.

Accelerating discovery

The pace of progress in science has historically been limited by bottlenecks. Researchers are increasingly working to overcome them by applying artificial intelligence, quantum computing and hybrid cloud technologies. New technologies are enabling accelerated discovery methods, including deep search, AI- and quantum-enriched simulation, generative models and cloud-based AI-driven autonomous labs.

IBM will provide access to a range of research and commercial technologies, education and tools to help Cleveland Clinic accelerate discovery in healthcare and life sciences, including RoboRXN, a cloud-based platform that combines AI models and robots to help scientists design and synthesise new molecules remotely; and the IBM Functional Genomics Platform, a cloud-based repository and research tool that uses novel approaches to reveal molecular features in viral and bacterial genomes, helping accelerate the discovery of molecular targets needed for drug design, test development and treatment.

Also included are Deep Search, which helps researchers quickly access structured and unstructured data, and high-performance hybrid cloud computing technologies that can allow researchers to “burst” their workloads to the cloud and access the resources they need at scale.

IBM Quantum flagship programme

Quantum computing has the potential to have an immense impact on key healthcare challenges, such as discovering new molecules that could underpin new pharmaceutical advances and spur the development of new drugs, and could help improve the ability to gain deep insight into the complex data at the heart of some of healthcare’s biggest challenges.

The Discovery Accelerator will leverage IBM’s multi-year roadmap for advancing quantum computing, putting its revolutionary capabilities in the hands of healthcare and life sciences scientists and professionals. In addition to an on-premises quantum system, Cleveland Clinic will also have access to IBM’s fleet of more than 20 quantum systems, accessible via the cloud. IBM aims to unveil its first next-generation 1,000+ qubit quantum system in 2023, and Cleveland Clinic is expected to be the site of the first private-sector on-premises system.

Building quantum skills in Ohio

A significant pillar of the programme is planned to focus on educating the workforce of the future and creating jobs to grow the economy. The 10-year collaboration plans to include education and workforce development opportunities related to quantum computing.

The innovative educational curriculum will be designed for participants from high school to professional level and will offer training and certification programmes in data science and quantum computing, building the skilled workforce needed for the cutting-edge data science research of the future. Cleveland Clinic and IBM plan to hold research symposia and workshops, with joint sessions by IBM and academic researchers, for academia, industry, government and the public.

About Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic – now in its centennial year – is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical centre that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based on the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. U.S. News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. Among Cleveland Clinic’s 70,800 employees worldwide are more than 4,660 salaried physicians and researchers, and 18,500 registered nurses and advanced practice providers, representing 140 medical specialties and subspecialties. Cleveland Clinic is a 6,500-bed health system that includes a 173-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 19 hospitals, more than 220 outpatient facilities, and locations in southeast Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England. In 2020, there were 8.7 million total outpatient visits, 273,000 hospital admissions and observations, and 217,000 surgical cases throughout Cleveland Clinic’s health system. Patients came for treatment from every state and 185 countries. Visit us at clevelandclinic.org. Follow us at twitter.com/ClevelandClinic. News and resources available at newsroom.clevelandclinic.org.

About IBM

For more information about IBM, visit https://www.ibm.com/