Quantum computer to be unveiled at Cleveland Clinic

IBM Vice Chairman Gary Cohn and Cleveland Clinic CEO Tom Mihaljevic are among the executives who are planning to unveil the IBM Quantum System One computer that has been installed at the health system's main campus in Cleveland at a formal event on Monday evening.

The computer installation is one of the results of a 10-year collaboration between the computer maker and health care provider that was announced in March 2021 to create a joint center that uses high-performance computing, the hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence and quantum computing technologies to speed health care discoveries.

The center, called the Discovery Accelerator, is expected to build a research and clinical infrastructure to empower big-data medical research, discoveries for patient care and novel approaches to public health threats, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the partners said in 2021.

The computer also figures into the $565 million Cleveland Innovation District, announced in January 2021, which centers on the Clinic's Global Center for Pathogen & Human Health Research, in which the Clinic is investing $300 million.

Discovery Accelerator researchers plan to use advanced computational technology to generate and analyze data that enhances research at the global pathogen center in areas such as genomics, single-cell transcriptomics, population health, clinical applications, and chemical and drug discovery, the partners said in 2021.

The event also marks the installation of the first on-site, private IBM (NYSE: IBM) quantum computer in the United States and the first quantum computer in the world dedicated to health care research, said Danielle Cerasani, an account executive at public relations firm Weber Shandwick, in an email.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, Congresswoman Shontel Brown and Susan Monarez, a National Institutes of Health leader, also are expected to attend the computer unveiling at the Clinic's Lerner Research Institute.