Statistics Recognition Innovations

Innovations

Since Cleveland Clinic’s founding in 1921, our innovations have transformed medicine. We imagine the best care possible, invent it through research, then share it with the world. Key breakthroughs:

  • Discovery of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects body and mood (1948).
  • Pioneering “stopped heart” surgery (1956) and coronary artery bypass surgery (1967).
  • Development of coronary angiography to reveal artery blockages (1958).
  • Establishment of cadaver donor use in kidney transplants (1963).
  • Discovery of a brain-mapping technique to pinpoint epileptic seizures (1980s).
  • First successful larynx transplant (1998).
  • Discovery that damaged brain cells can regenerate (2008).
  • First U.S. near-total face transplant (2008).
  • Demonstration that bariatric surgery controls diabetes (2012).
  • World’s first deep brain stimulation surgery to restore function after stroke (2016).
  • First North American birth of a baby following deceased-donor uterine transplant (2019).
  • Development of a vaccine to prevent deadly triple-negative breast cancer (2021).
Research & Education Treatment Outcomes