Cleveland Clinic

Sydell & Arnold Miller Family Pavilion, Cleveland Clinic

Cleveland Clinic opened its doors in March 1921, eager to implement what was then a new and untried concept: a group practice. Over the next several years, a new 240-bed hospital and research annex were built. In the 1950s heart care became a major medical focus. At Cleveland Clinic, coronary angiography and bypass surgery were born.

Since then, Cleveland Clinic has built 15 family health and surgery centers and acquired a system of nine community hospitals. In 2002 it founded the first new medical school program in the US in 25 years. Today Cleveland Clinic has grown to become the second largest group practice in the world. Its 37,000 employees—2,000 of them physicians and scientists—work in 120 medical specialties and subspecialties. The clinic’s statistics are phenomenal, with more than 3 million patient visits, nearly 75,000 surgical cases, more than 50,000 inpatients, and more than 3,600 open-heart surgeries annually. Cleveland Clinic surgeons perform more heart-valve operations than any other medical facility in the United States. The Clinic’s leading specialties are:

Heart Disease and Cardiovascular Disorders: The Robert and Suzanne Tomsich Department of Cardiovascular Medicine has physicians in every cardiovascular specialty working to offer the latest medications and interventional heart disease procedures. Specialty sections include cardiac electrophysiology and pacing, clinical cardiology, cardiovascular imaging, invasive cardiology, heart failure and transplantation, preventive cardiology and rehabilitation, and vascular medicine. The Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery is one of the largest, most experienced cardiac and thoracic surgery groups in the world. Its surgeons offer virtually every type of cardiac surgery including elective or emergency surgery for heart valve disease, aortic aneurysm, coronary artery disease, arrhythmias, and more. Surgeons of the Department of Vascular Surgery perform more than 5,000 procedures annually, nearly a third of them for the amelioration of atherosclerosis.

Digestive Diseases: Cleveland Clinic’s Digestive Diseases Institute (DDI) offers patients advanced, safe, and proven medical and surgical treatments for disorders of the gastrointestinal tract. DDI houses the largest institutional registries for inherited colon cancer in the United States and the second largest in the world. It is the largest referral center in the US for repairing failed pelvic pouches. DDI surgeons use the latest in diagnostic and treatment options, including transanal endoscopic microsurgery and intraoperative radiotherapy. DDI colorectal surgeons avoid a permanent colostomy in approximately 80 percent of rectal cancer cases.

Urological and Kidney Diseases: The Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute is a world leader in treating complex urologic and kidney conditions in adults and children. Institute physicians have pioneered medical advances including dialysis, partial nephrectomy, laparoscopic and robotic urologic surgery, and the bioartificial kidney. Cleveland Clinic surgeons perform more than 3,000 laparoscopic partial nephrectomies annually.

Neurology and Neurosurgery: The multidisciplinary Cleveland Clinic Neurological Institute is a leader in treating and researching the most complex neurological disorders, advancing innovations such as epilepsy surgery, stereotactic spine radiosurgery, interstitial thermal therapy for brain tumors, and deep brain stimulation. Annually, the institute’s staff of more than 300 specialists serves 140,000 patients and performs 7,500 surgeries.

In recent years the clinic’s footprint has become increasingly global, with such innovations as its award-winning website, podcasts, and web seminars; and the secure transmission of electronic medical records for both physicians and patients. Also, Cleveland Clinic has partnered with Mubadala Healthcare to build a full-service hospital and specialty clinic in Abu Dhabi, UAE. It also manages Sheikh Khalifa Medical City in Abu Dhabi.