Feb. 28, 1921: Mrs. M.A. Codding of Lodi is the first of 42 patients admitted on the first day the Clinic is open.
December 1945: Irvine H. Page, M.D., is named director of the Research Division, a key moment in the development of the Clinic’s reputation as a leader in medical research. Dr. Page and his team make major discoveries linking high blood pressure to heart disease.
1948: Arda Alden Green, Ph.D., Irvine H. Page, M.D., and Maurice Rapport, Ph.D., isolate serotonin. This breakthrough is associated with the development of Prozac, among other advances.
1950s: George Crile Jr., M.D., pioneers conservative surgical techniques for treating breast and other cancers, achieving the same results with less disfiguring therapies than the then-standard radical mastectomy.
1951: George Phalen, M.D., identifies carpal tunnel syndrome, a painful disorder that affects workers whose jobs involve repetitive wrist and hand movements.
1955-1967: Colorectal surgeon Rupert Turnbull Jr., M.D., develops the “no touch” technique to isolate diseased tissue, thus preventing the spread of cancer cells during surgery for colon cancer. This greatly reduces the mortality rates after colorectal surgery.
1956: Heart surgeons Donald B. Effler, M.D., and Laurence K. Groves, M.D., stop and restart the heart of a 17-month-old with the aid of a heart-lung machine developed by Willem A. Kolff, M.D. While the boy’s heart is stopped, the surgeons repair a congenital hole.
1958: Cardiologist F. Mason Sones Jr., M.D., develops coronary angiography, which allows doctors to view the heart and its vessels through moving X-rays. Angiography paves the way for the development of bypass surgery.
1958-1968: Researcher Helen Brown, Ph.D., had a major part in determining the role of dietary cholesterol in cardiovascular disease and creates the first diet to reduce cholesterol levels.
1960: Carl E. Wasmuth, M.D., and colleagues in the Department of Anesthesia are able to control blood pressure during and after cardiac surgery using sodium nitroprusside. This development reduces postoperative complications and mortality.
1963: Surgeons Ralph A. Straffon, M.D., Eugene F. Poutasse, M.D., And Willem A. Kolff, M.D., pioneer kidney transplantation and revascularization, performing one of the first successful cadaver kidney transplants. Dr. Kolff had developed the dialysis machine.
1967: Heart surgeon Rene Favaloro, M.D., pioneers coronary bypass surgery, which today saves tens of thousands of lives each year.
1968: Cleveland Clinic’s first heart transplant takes place, inaugurating a program that today, is the busiest heart transplant center in the United States of America.
1971: Bypass surgery undergoes its most important refinement as Floyd D. Loop, M.D., refines operative techniques, does extensive follow-up on bypass patients, and pioneers approaches to lowering the cost of hospitalization for cardiac surgery.
1972: Floyd D. Loop, M.D., William L. Proudfit, M.D., and William C. Sheldon, M.D., establish a cardiovascular information registry, the world’s first computerized registry of data on cardiac diagnosis and treatment.
1976: America’s first department of Cardiothoracic Anesthesiology is founded at the Cleveland Clinic under the chairmanship of F. George Estafanous, M.D.
1980s: Cardiothoracic surgeon, Delos M. Cosgrove, M.D., develops a computerized device that monitors a patient’s condition and automatically administers drugs according to need. Dr. Cosgrove also develops a mitral valve retractor and annuloplasty ring that affords a more effective repair.
Dr. Delos M. "Toby" Cosgrove
In collaboration with cardiac perfusionists, Bruce W. Lytle, M.D., introduced and refined a technique that extends the safe interval of total circulatory arrest necessary to perform these complex surgeries without neurological complications.
1991: Cardiothoracic surgeon Delos M. Cosgrove, M.D., pioneers aortic valvuloplasty, a procedure that allows surgeons to repair diseased heart valves.
1992: Neurosurgeon Gene H. Barnett, M.D., and researcher Donald W. Kormos, Ph.D., develop the sonic wand, an imaging technique that allows brain surgeons to pinpoint lesions with unprecedented ease and precision.
Cleveland Clinic Heart Center surgeons perform the world’s first mitral valve repair and Maze procedure in the same operation. The Maze procedure creates new pathways for the electrical impulses that trigger the heartbeat.
Heart Center surgeons perform Ohio’s first heart/double lung transplant.
June 1994: The Harry R. Horvitz Palliative Care Center is dedicated. The World Health Organization has designated the Cleveland Clinic Palliative Care Program an official WHO Demonstration Project for better cancer care.
April 30, 1995: The first baby is born at the Clinic’s new Birthing Services Center. Obstetric services at the Clinic had been discontinued in 1966.
October 1995: Clinic researchers receive a grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to develop the continuous flow pump, which will be used as a long-term bridge for patients awaiting a heart transplant.
November 1995: The Clinic and NASA Lewis Research Center enter a three-year agreement to collaborate on research projects designed to benefit both health care and space exploration.
December 1996: Cardiothoracic surgeons perform the 500th heart transplant at Cleveland Clinic since 1984. The Clinic maintains one of the country’s largest cardiac transplantation programs while exceeding the national average survival rates.
March 1997: Surgeons perform the 2,000th kidney transplant at Cleveland Clinic.
January 1998: Cleveland Clinic otolaryngologist Marshall Strome, M.D., performs the first successful total larynx transplant.
January 1998: Lerner Research Institute scientist Bruce Trapp, Ph.D., and Clinic neurologist, Richard Rudick, M.D., discovered the concepts of pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis. This discovery opens the possibility of treating the disease with drugs that protect nerve cells from dying.
April 1998: Cleveland Clinic establishes Women’s Health Section, designed to provide comprehensive primary medical care for women, encourage greater research into women’s health issues, and train a new generation of physicians who are more responsive to women’s needs. The program is one of 19 nationwide and the first in the area.
May 1998: Cleveland Clinic sponsors First Restenosis Cybersummit – believed to be the first of its kind in the United States. Cardiologists from around the world gather on the Web to address the latest developments in the treatment of restenosis and field questions on-line from the global audience.
March 1999: Richard M. Ransohoff, M.D., a neuroscientist at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute and the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research, leads study that identifies molecules involved in MS inflammation.
April 1999: Richard Rudick, M.D., director of the Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, is principal investigator of a study showing that drug therapy slows the rate of brain shrinkage in MS.
September 1999: World’s first baby born following robotically assisted fallopian tube reconnection operation performed by Tommaso Falcone, M.D., head of the section of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Section.
September 1999: Olympic and world champion figure skater Scott Hamilton announces the C.A.R.E.S. Initiative in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Center. Mr. Hamilton launched the Cancer Alliance for Research, Education and Survivorship (C.A.R.E.S.) following his own successful battle with the disease.
September 16, 1999: Health Hill Hospital for Children officially changes its name to the Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation to emphasize its alliance with the Cleveland Clinic Health System.
September 18, 1999: The Cole Eye Institute is dedicated. The new home of the Cleveland Clinic’s ophthalmic services, research and education, the Cole Eye Institute is named to reflect a $10 million gift from Cole National Corp.
October 1999: Cleveland Clinic is chosen as one of three U.S. medical institutions to participate in a gene therapy clinical trial to inject Leuvectin — a DNA complex that produces interleukin-2 — into the prostates of men with cancers that are difficult to treat by standard means.
December 1999: The Cleveland Clinic Health System Gamma Knife Center treats its 500th patient. The gamma knife is used to deliver pinpoint-precise radiation treatments to patients with brain tumors when surgery and traditional radiation therapy are not possible or effective.
February 2000: Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute scientists Serpil Erzurum, M.D., and Suzy Comhair, Ph.D., discover that levels of certain lung enzymes decrease during allergen-provoked asthma, creating the potential to develop novel drugs to fight the disease.
March 2000: Cleveland Clinic physicians Inderbir Gill, M.D., and Craig D. Zippe, M.D., pioneer a minimally invasive technique to remove the prostate. The procedure, a laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, is designed to decrease recovery time and pain in men who must have cancerous prostates removed.
April 2000: Cleveland Clinic researchers led by Michael S. Lauer, M.D., discover that the measurement of "heart rate recovery" time following a routine exercise test is a powerful predictor of mortality, even among otherwise, healthy middle-age adults.
May 2000: The Cleveland Clinic’s Harry R. Horvitz Center for Palliative Medicine is recognized by the American Hospital Association for its care of patients with cancer and other complicated diseases.
May 2000: Investigators from the Cleveland Clinic and Cornell University identify a protein receptor responsible for much of the buildup of low-density lipoprotein in patients with atherosclerosis. The research, led by Stanley Hazen, M.D., Ph.D., of the Lerner Research Institute, will be the basis for novel therapies to combat hardening of the arteries.
June 2000: The Cleveland Clinic acquires the former Mt. Sinai Integrated Medical Campus in Beachwood. Renamed the Cleveland Clinic Beachwood Family Health Center, the campus offers on-site radiology, laboratory and pharmacy services, as well as advanced outpatient surgery at the Ambulatory Surgery center.
July 2000: For the sixth year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranks the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center as the best in the nation. Among its other honors, the Clinic also is listed fourth in US News & World Report’s Honor Roll of Hospitals, the only Ohio medical institution to make this list.
July 12, 2000: Cleveland Clinic trustees, medical staff and members of the Daniel T. Taussig family dedicate the Taussig Cancer Center, home of the region’s largest cancer center.
August 24, 2000: The Cleveland Clinic Independence Family Health Center is dedicated. The site combines two separate Independence sites and allows new or expanded services in areas such as mammography, family medicine and allergy.
September 2000: Cleveland Clinic Drs. Jonathon Drummond-Webb and Peter Koltai perform a rare slide tracheoplasty on an infant who is little more than 2 weeks old. The child becomes the youngest patient ever to receive the surgery, which removes an abnormally narrow section of the trachea to restore normal breathing capabilities.
December 2000: Cleveland Clinic researchers Richard Crownover, M.D., and Raymond Rodebaugh, Ph.D., coordinate a CyberKnife trial in which a robotic radiosurgery system is tested to determine whether it can treat moving lung tumors. The trial, designed to provide alternative treatment for lung cancer patients unable to undergo surgery, is the only one of its kind in the world.
December 2000: The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Hillcrest Hospital, a member of the Cleveland Clinic Health System, are rated among the nation’s Top 100 hospitals by Solucient, a health care information and benchmarking company. Solucient’s 100 Top Hospitals Benchmarks for Success study recognizes hospitals that have achieved excellence in quality of care, efficiency of operations and sustainability of overall performance.
January 2001: A research team led by Kang Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., of the Cole Eye Institute identifies a disease gene associated with macular degeneration. The newly identified gene, ELOVL4, is responsible for a majority of autosomal dominant forms of Stargardt’s macular degeneration, the most common form of early-onset macular degeneration.
January 2001: Cleveland Clinic cardiologist James B. Young, M.D., is tapped to serve on a national advisory committee that will help to develop policy on organ transplantation for the US Department of Health and Human Services.
January 2001: Patrick Whitlow, M.D., director of the Department of Interventional Cardiology at The Cleveland Clinic, becomes the first cardiologist in the United States to use a new type of disposable coronary artery catheter. The disposable catheter is designed to eliminate obstructions in fully blocked arteries that now limit minimally invasive treatment. The Cleveland Clinic also is selected to conduct the first US trial of the product.
March 2001: Two major academic/scientific posts are created at the Cleveland Clinic as part of a commitment to expand and enhance education and research. Eric J. Topol, M.D., becomes the Clinic’s first Chief Academic Officer, and Richard A. Rudick, M.D., Becomes the hospital’s first Director of its new Center of Clinical Research.
March 2001: Cleveland Clinic cardiologist James D. Thomas, M.D., NASA’s lead scientist for ultrasound, watches from Earth as the digital echocardiography laboratory he designed to monitor the effects of long-term space flight on the heart is installed on the international space station.
April 1, 2001: Cleveland Clinic Florida, Naples Hospital opens its doors to the public. The new 70-bed, 170,000-square foot hospital features a hotel-like atmosphere for patients. The hospital includes an intensive care unit and an emergency services department.
June 30, 2001: The Clinic's first-ever public fundraising campaign breaks its $225 million goal and wraps up a year ahead of schedule. As of June 30, 2001, the "Securing the 21st Century" campaign has raised $256 million.
July 13, 2001: For the seventh year in a row, U.S. News & World Report ranks the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center as the best in the nation. For the fourth consecutive year, the Clinic is listed among the nation's top five in the magazine's Honor Roll of Hospitals.
July 14, 2001: The Departments of Colorectal Surgery and Gastroenterology combine at one site to form the Digestive Disease Center. The new center is the first of its kind in the nation.
July 14, 2001: The Clinic's Nurse On Call program celebrates its 10-year anniversary. Launched with four nurses, the free program now utilizes the skills of 22 registered nurses who take 250,000 calls a year from across the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico and the Middle East.
July 26, 2001: Cleveland Clinic Children's Hospital dedicates its new 17-bed, Level III neonatal intensive care unit.
November 2001: Researchers from the Center for Cardiovascular Diagnostics and Prevention and the Lerner Research Institute demonstrate that people with increased levels of myeloperoxidase (MPO) in their white blood cells have increased prevalence of coronary artery disease.
May 14, 2002: Cleveland Clinic joins with Case Western Reserve University to create The Cleveland Clinic College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. The new college is designed to train clinical investigators and physician-scientists. The college will admit its first class in 2004.
June 20, 2002: Cleveland Browns owner and MBNA Chairman Al Lerner and his wife, Norma, contribute $100 million to Cleveland Clinic to benefit the Clinic's new College of Medicine. The gift is one of the largest personal contributions to academic medicine in the history of the United States. The college is renamed The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University.
June 23, 2002: Cleveland Clinic hosts MSNBC for a 2-hour, live nationwide program, "Summit For A Cure." Eric J. Topol, MD, serves as a panelist for the show, which is moderated by news anchor Brian Williams. Delos M. Cosgrove, M.D., performs a live heart surgery during the program.
July 2002: For the eighth year in a row, Cleveland Clinic's Heart Center is named the nation's best medical center for cardiac care, according to US News & World Report.
August 6, 2002: Cleveland businessman Sam Miller and his wife, Maria, donate $8 million to Cleveland Clinic to benefit emergency services. The building will be named The Sam and Maria Miller Emergency Services Building in recognition of their generosity.
September 4, 2002: Peter Koltai, M.D., of The Children's Hospital at Cleveland Clinic develops a new procedure to remove tonsils. This new technique shaves away a portion of the tonsils rather than completely cutting them out, which results in less pain, quicker recovery times and fewer complications.
October 2, 2002: Cleveland businessman Carl Glickman and his wife, Babs, contribute $8 million to The Cleveland Clinic's Urological Institute. The Glickmans' contribution allows for a new pediatric dialysis facility, as well as continued excellence in patient care, teaching and research. The institute will be renamed the Glickman Urological Institute of The Cleveland Clinic.
October 18, 2002: The Foundation Fighting Blindness, a non-profit organization dedicated to finding the causes, treatments, preventions and cures for inherited retinal diseases, chooses Cleveland Clinic Cole Eye Institute to host its collection center for eyes donated by individuals across the United States for blindness research.
October 29, 2002: A $6 million gift from a Northeast Ohio resident is given to The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University. The gift will establish The Center for Disease Prevention and The Donald G. Vidt, MD, Endowed Chair for Preventive Medicine.
November 3, 2002: Researchers at Cleveland Clinic discover a common gene mutation that could double a man's risk for developing prostate cancer.
December 10, 2002: TRW Inc. announces plans to donate its 350,000-square-foot corporate headquarters, guest house and 68 acres of land to Cleveland Clinic. TRW makes the $60 million donation when it moves out of the city of Lyndhurst.
January 2003: The Cleveland Clinic Heart Transplant Program completes its 1,000th transplant. As of this date, only two other hospitals across the nation have reached this landmark, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
March 2003: Doctors at The Cleveland Clinic's Gamma Knife Center treat their 1,000th patient with the non-surgical radiation delivery system used to treat a variety of neurologic disorders. The Clinic was the world's first Gamma Knife treatment center.
April 11, 2003: Cleveland Clinic-led research determines that measuring systemic levels of nitrotyrosine in patients is a powerful new marker for assessing the risk for coronary artery disease.
May 2003: Cleveland Clinic receives a $17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a general clinical research center, the largest NIH award ever received by the Clinic.
August 28, 2003: Cleveland Clinic researchers discover that stem cells can help cardiac tissue to repair itself weeks after a heart attack and identify the first stem cell "homing factor" for cardiac muscle tissue.
October 22, 2003: Researchers identify a new blood test to determine whether a person is in imminent danger of heart attack or death. The test is especially valuable for identifying at-risk patients not recognized by current diagnostic laboratory testing.
November 5, 2003: A new Cleveland Clinic-directed study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association provides strong evidence that five weekly infusions of a synthetic form of "good cholesterol," or HDL, can remove significant amounts of plaque from these arteries.
November 20, 2003: The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) names the Cleveland Clinic Health System a 2003 winner of the seventh annual Ernest A. Codman Award to recognize excellence in the use of outcomes measurement by health care organizations to achieve improvements in the quality and safety of health care.
November 28, 2003: Cleveland Clinic scientists under the leadership of Eric Topol, MD, identify the first gene confirmed as a cause of coronary heart disease in humans. The gene, MEF2A, was discovered by methodically studying the genetic makeup of 21 members of an Iowa family plagued for generations by incidents of coronary artery disease and heart attack.
January 20, 2004: Scientists at Cleveland Clinic identify a gene locus that begins to explain why some people are more susceptible to premature coronary artery disease and heart attack than others.
March 8, 2004: Neurosurgeon Peter A. Rasmussen, M.D., pioneers a minimally invasive surgical technique to treat specific types of potentially fatal brain aneurysms. The technique combines two highly flexible stents in a Y-configuration to expand treatment options for intracranial aneurysms that occur in areas where blood vessels branch off in different directions.
April 14, 2004: Cleveland Clinic-led researchers find that preserving the connectivity of nerve fibers is key to developing potential treatments for multiple sclerosis and other neurological conditions that affect myelin, a type of insulation that surrounds nerve fibers..
April 28, 2004: Cleveland Clinic radiation oncologists and urologists perform their 1,000th prostate brachytherapy, a type of treatment in which radioactive seeds are implanted in the prostate to destroy cancerous cells.
May 17, 2004: Cleveland Clinic is awarded a four-year, $1.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to investigate how strokes and other events that cut off blood flow to the brain disrupt the blood-brain barrier. Researchers plan to use their findings to develop new methods to limit the damage caused by such events.
June 2, 2004: Internationally renowned heart surgeon Delos M. "Toby" Cosgrove, M.D, is appointed chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of Governors of Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Cosgrove assumes his new duties following a transition period spent working with former CEO Floyd D. Loop, M.D.
June 30, 2004: Cleveland Clinic Minority Men's Health Center is established within the Glickman Urological Institute to improve the understanding and treatment of urological diseases in minority men. The center's initial efforts focus on prostate cancer and kidney disease.
July 2, 2004: Cleveland Clinic Heart Center celebrates a decade of being ranked as the nation's No. 1 cardiac care center on US News & World Report's 2004 "America's Best Hospitals" survey. For 2004, the hospital is ranked No. 4 on the list of best overall hospitals.
July 6, 2004: Classes begin at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, with an inaugural group of 32 students from 14 states. The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine program is designed to train graduates who will have a solid combination of clinical and research skills and a passion for scientific inquiry
Sept 1, 2004: Cleveland Clinic receives a $17.2 million gift from The Earl and Doris Bakken Foundation to develop a unique institute dedicated to researching the medical interconnections between the heart and the brain. The new center is the first of its kind in the world, establishing the new field of heart-brain medicine.
October 2004: The National Institutes of Health awards a $14 million grant to a consortium of Cleveland educators and health care providers to create a new program to train the next generation of clinical research leaders. The Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University is appointed to administer the five-year grant.
January 21, 2005: Cleveland Clinic announces plans to contribute $10 million in cash and services over the next five years to support and enhance educational opportunities for Cleveland Municipal Schools and other area students.
February 8, 2005: Cleveland Clinic is awarded a five-year, $17.22 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to advance its research into the science of heart attacks. The federal funding supported Clinic studies in four key areas: the genetics of heart attacks, the genetics of atherosclerosis, the role of proteins in arterial disease, and the role of inflammation markers in the formation of coronary plaques.
February 15, 2005: Researchers led by a cancer biologist at Cleveland Clinic discover that conversion analysis, a newer form of genetic testing, can be used to more accurately pinpoint genetic abnormalities in patients with certain inherited forms of colon cancer.
February 18, 2005: Pediatric cardiologists at The Children's Hospital at The Cleveland Clinic become the first physicians in the United States to use a new device, the Transcatheter Patch, to close an atrial septal defect (ASD), a hole in the wall between the heart's right and left atrium.
April 7, 2005: Cleveland Clinic launches the Cleveland Clinic Press, a consumer-publishing arm, whose mission is to increase health literacy through publication of non-fiction consumer books and other media for the medical, health, nutrition and exercise markets.
May 2, 2005: Cleveland Clinic researchers receive a US patent for technology they developed to measure damage to a person's blood-brain barrier, which is responsible for blocking foreign substances from reaching the brain.
May 10, 2005: A consortium comprising the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Cincinnati and several medical device firms receives $22.8 million from the state of Ohio to establish an Atrial Fibrillation Innovation Center at the Clinic. A second consortium receives $6 million to fund age-related macular degeneration research based at the Clinic's Cole Eye Institute and a third Clinic-led group receives $4 million to establish a Clinical Tissue Engineering Center.
May 12, 2005: Cleveland Clinic is certified as a Primary Stroke Center by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). The designation signifies the Clinic has met stringent national stroke care standards based on recommendations from the Brain Attack Coalition and the American Stroke Association.
June 6, 2005: PrognostiX, a start-up company based on Cleveland Clinic technology, receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin selling a diagnostic test capable of identifying patients who are in imminent danger of heart attack or death.
June 8, 2005: Cleveland Clinic creates an office of Civic Education Initiatives to provide education outreach services to Northeast Ohio communities.
July 4, 2005: Cleveland Clinic and Cleveland Clinic Health System “Smashed the Ash” when all Clinic facilities and grounds in Ohio and Florida became smoke-free.
September 22, 2005: Sydell L. Miller and her daughters, Lauren Spilman and Stacie Halpern, give a $70 million gift to Cleveland Clinic to help fund the Sydell and Arnold Miller Family Pavilion, the Clinic’s new main entrance and the cornerstone of future expansion.
February 4, 2006: A team of researchers from Cleveland Clinic and the University of California, San Francisco announce the discovery of a new virus in prostate tumors.
March 17, 2006: Cleveland Clinic announces the establishment of Cleveland Clinic Canada, a new health and wellness center in Toronto.
May 8, 2006: Jane and Lee Seidman of Cleveland pledge $17 million to help kickoff Cleveland Clinic’s “Today’s Innovations, Tomorrow’s Healthcare” philanthropic campaign—a monumental five-year campaign to raise $1.25 billion.
September 13, 2006: Cleveland Clinic and Mubadala Development sign an agreement to establish a hospital in Abu Dhabi to be known as Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi.
December 15, 2006: Cleveland Clinic, in collaboration Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation (FRDC) and more than 20 biomedical and academic institutions, receives $60 million from the State of Ohio to develop a Global Cardiovascular Innovation Center (GCIC).
January 26, 2007: Hillcrest Hospital announces plans for a five-year, $163 million campus expansion and renovation.
February 27, 2007: Cleveland Clinic announces the elimination of trans fatty acids from its main campus and regional health system, becoming one of the first tertiary medical centers in the country to ban artificial trans fat from all inpatient and cafeteria menus.
May 2007: Steven E. Nissen, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at Cleveland Clinic, is named one of the 100 Most Influential People by Time magazine.
May 2007: An analysis of 42 medical trials conducted by Steven E. Nissen, M.D., finds a drug commonly used to treat patients with diabetes, raises patients’ risk of heart attack and cardiovascular death.
July 10, 2007: President George W. Bush visits Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute to discuss medical innovations and the importance of transparency in quality outcomes.
August 2007: Ali R. Rezai, M.D., reports in Nature that he and a multi-center team have performed a deep brain stimulation procedure for the first time on a patient in a minimally conscious state following severe traumatic brain injury.
February 21, 2008: Cleveland Clinic announces a pilot project with Google to test secure exchange of patient medical record data such as prescriptions, conditions and allergies. The pilot will eventually extend Cleveland Clinic’s online patient services to a broader audience while enabling the portability of patient information so patients can take it with them wherever they go.
July 1, 2008: Cleveland Clinic leads the nation in improving the health of its employees by offering free access to Weight Watchers® services, memberships to fitness facilities, and smoking cessation treatment and medication for employees participating in the Clinic’s Corporate Employee Health Plan.
July 17, 2008: A team of urologists from the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute perform the first live kidney donation through a single belly button incision.
November 2008: Cleveland Clinic partners with Microsoft Corp. to pilot the patient-controlled data exchange between Microsoft® HealthVault™, a Web-based personal health platform and eCleveland Clinic MyChart®, Cleveland Clinic’s electronic personal health record system. It’s the first pilot in the country to follow multiple diseases in the clinical delivery setting using a variety of at-home devices such as glucometers, heart rate monitors and blood pressure monitors.
November 2008: In its ongoing effort to be transparent, Cleveland Clinic provides physician disclosures on its Web site, listing the names of companies with which they have collaborations, further identifying whether they have equity, the right to royalties, a fiduciary position or a consulting relationship that pays $5,000 or more per year.
December 2008: A multi-disciplinary team of doctors and surgeons led by Maria Siemionow, M.D., Ph.D., performs the first near-total face transplant in the United States. In a 22-hour procedure, surgeons transplanted 80 percent of the face of a woman who suffered severe facial trauma.
