The 9th annual Cleveland Clinic Medical Innovation Summit was held October 3-5, 2011. The focus was State of the Heart: Cardiovascular Technologies and about 1,000 senior executives, investors, entrepreneurs and clinicians gathered at Cleveland Clinic to discover the future of medicine. 
The Summit featured procedural demonstrations, presentations and expert panels covering Medical Devices, Pharmaceutical, IT, Government, Media and more. The key people in the industry participated. 
Richard Gilfillan, MD, Acting Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
For example, one early panel was titled Perspectives from the Top of the Industry and was moderated by CNBC Anchor Maria Bartitomo.  Panelists included: - Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox
- Delos Cosgove, MD, CEO of Cleveland Clinic
- Harry Rein, General Partner, Foundation Medical Partners
- John Sheets, PhD, Senior VP of Boston Scientific
- Daniel Starks, CEO of St Jude Medical
As someone from outside the industry I was particularly interested (and more likely to be able to comprehend) some of the non-technical medical discussions such as The 2012 Election and its Effect on Innovation moderated by Paul Begala from CNN, Newsweek and the Daily Beast and Investing in Healthcare IT: The Hottest Market in the Industry.
But 3 sessions stood out for me. The Top 10 Medical Innovations for 2011, the Vice-President Dick Cheney session and the Jeopardy game with IBM's supercomputer Watson.
The Top 10 Medical Innovations have become a much-anticipated highlight of the Summit. "The Top 10 list reflects the place of Clinic physicians as arbiters of innovation. It goes all over the world, usually with a forward of an email commending the recipient that if the technology is important to Cleveland Clinic it should be important to you," said Christopher Coburn, Executive Director, Innovations, the Cleveland Clinic's corporate venturing arm. Dr. Michael Roizen and his team process the numerous candidates for the Top Ten and finally whittle the list to the most promising. See the list and learn more about the Top Ten.
Vice-President Dick Cheney was interviewed by Bob Woodruff of ABC News at lunch on the 3rd day of the Summit. 
Bob Woodruff and Vice President Dick Cheney
VP Cheney's heart problems are well-known and many are aware of Woodruff being hit by a bomb while covering the war in Iraq in 2006. This keynote concentrated on their medical situations - both admitting that they wouldn't have been alive just a few years ago. Medical innovations have allowed them to survive and live productive lives.
Listen to Bob Woodruff tell about the bomb attack in Iraq.
Listen to Vice-President Dick Cheney tell if stress affected his heart condition.
Listen to Vice-President Dick Cheney talk about a near-death experience.
The other standout session for me was Beyond Jeopardy!: The Implications of IBM's Watson. Dr. David Ferrucci, Group Manager of the Semantic Analysis and Integration Department at IBM’s T.J. Watson’s Research Center, explained the workings of the supercomputer that defeated the human Jeopardy! champions.
Dr. David Ferrucci and IBM's Watson
IBM's website says, "His team of 25 researchers focuses on developing technologies for discovering knowledge in natural language and leveraging those technologies in a variety of intelligent search, data analytics, and knowledge management solutions.
In 2007, Dr. Ferrucci began exploring the feasibility of designing a computer system that can rival human champions at the game of Jeopardy!. Dubbed DeepQA, the project focused on advancing natural language question answering using massively parallel evidence-based computing. After winning support, Ferrucci has set and driven the technical agenda for Jeopardy! The IBM Challenge.
The Watson computer system designed by Ferrucci’s team represents the integration and advancement of many search, natural language processing, and semantic technologies.
IBM's Watson defeated the human Jeopardy! champs
Following the Jeopardy! challenge, Dr. Ferrucci and his team plan to apply DeepQA technologies to areas like medicine, government, and law to drive advances in computer supported intelligence and decision-making."
Watson took on 2 teams of Clinic physicians in a Jeopardy! challenge at the Summit. The Gladiators team was led by Dr. Steve Nissen with help from Dr. Bruce Lindsay and Dr. Thomas Marwick. 
The Gladiators team
The Defibrillators team was led by Dr. Marc Gillinov with help from Dr. Steven Ellis and .
The Defibrillators team
IBM's David Shepler played the role of Jeopardy!'s Alex Trebek. 
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