Innovation is part of the culture at Cleveland Clinic. That entrepreneurial culture, which encourages, rewards and enables discovery, naturally fosters discussion about breakthrough technologies focused on solving patient problems.

To share what our clinical leaders view as the innovations that will have the greatest impact on healthcare in the coming year, Cleveland Clinic releases an annual list of the Top 10 Medical Innovations.

Cleveland Clinic uses a rigorous process to gather the opinions of its physicians and researchers and create the Top 10 list. This year, there were more than 100 innovations nominated by more than 100 experts who were interviewed over a three-month span.

A team at Cleveland Clinic Innovations prepared research on 56 of the innovations and presented the list of nominations and their data profiles to two separate panels of Cleveland Clinic physicians.

The experts debated the merits of devices, diagnostics, drugs, procedures, information technology advances and other innovations. The end result is the Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2013.

The passion of our clinicians and researchers for providing the best patient care drives a continuous dialogue about state-of-the-art medical technologies. The Top 10 represents an unbiased list of important emerging technologies, based on the collective judgment of our leading physicians.

After gastric bypass, about 1/3 of patients with type 2 diabetes can go off all their diabetes medications within hours of surgery, and 85% of patients have remission of their diabetes within two years of surgery.

More than 95% of all bariatric procedures preformed at Cleveland Clinic are done through minimally invasive techniques.

Bariatric surgery is the most effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea- causing remission in 80-85% of cases.

Joe Milicia, milicij2@ccf.org 216.312.0591