How Cleveland Clinic Launched Some of Healthcare’s Greatest Innovations

Coronary artery bypass. Gastroendoscopy. Near-total face transplant. Diagnosing disease through breath analysis.

For nearly one century, Cleveland Clinic has been the launching pad for healthcare innovations like these. Cleveland Clinic innovation has advanced surgical techniques, developed cutting-edge medical technologies and pioneered a new model of healthcare. But perhaps the foremost way it has revolutionized healthcare is with a proven method of “putting ideas to work.”

Now, one of the nation’s top five hospitals is sharing its processes and best practices in a new book, Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way, by Thomas J. Graham, MD.

“Innovation is not an invisible, creative characteristic that individuals or institutions either have or don’t have,” says Dr. Graham, who served as Cleveland Clinic’s first Chief Innovation Officer. “Innovation is a discipline that can be learned, practiced and leveraged to bring about meaningful transformation and sustainable success, even in the toughest of industries and most trying times.”

A must-read for healthcare leaders

Innovation is proving to be the margin of difference in healthcare. And in no other industry may the stakes be higher. Transcendent ideas that come from our laboratories and bedsides don’t just boost a bottom line. They improve and extend human life.

Cleveland Clinic has witnessed it. If your healthcare organization is ripe for transformation, you can reap the results as well by grafting in Cleveland Clinic’s innovation-cultivating philosophy and methods.

Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way reveals:

• The process to take “napkin ideas” through successful commercialization
• The most common innovation pitfalls and how to avoid or address them
• How to recognize and develop ideas for all of Cleveland Clinic’s “Six Degrees of Innovation”
• How to align mission and innovation for sustainable success
• How to identify your organization’s innovation assets and put them to work

Managing the change ahead

While every industry is facing new realities created by information technology, economic uncertainty and regulation, healthcare is front and center. Like never before, healthcare must embrace mission-driven innovation. Those who do — and develop a core competency in commercialization — will not only deliver answers to tomorrow’s medical needs but also expand their identity, attract talent and grow the economy.

That’s what Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way can help your organization do. Learn from the institution that has shown how innovation can deliver solutions for big problems affecting large populations faster, more efficiently and less expensively.

“Tom Graham offers farsighted and practical strategies for applying technology to democratize and accelerate health innovation,” says Mike Rhodin, Senior Vice President, IBM Watson and Watson Health. “Approaches like these are exactly what is needed to transform healthcare and realize its potential to help us lead healthier and more productive lives.”

About “The Cleveland Clinic Way”

Innovation the Cleveland Clinic Way was published by McGraw-Hill Education as part of The Cleveland Clinic Way series. Other books in the series include The Cleveland Clinic Way (2014) by Toby Cosgrove, MD, CEO and President of Cleveland Clinic, and Service Fanatics: How to Build Superior Patient Experience the Cleveland Clinic Way (2015) by Jim Merlino, MD. Two more books are in development: Communication the Cleveland Clinic Way by Adrienne Boissy, MD, Chief Experience Officer, and IT the Cleveland Clinic Way by C. Martin Harris, MD, Chief Information Officer.

Books in The Cleveland Clinic Way series are available for purchase in print or eBook at amazon.com or wherever books are sold.

Learn to become a physician leader with Cleveland Clinic Global Executive Education programs, including The Cleveland Clinic Way: Intensives, Samson Global Leadership Academy and the Executive Visitors’ Program.