IBM, Cleveland Clinic Team Up on Quantum Computing and a Healthcare “Discovery Accelerator”

In The Office, Ryan Howard bets on Ohio’s future as the next Silicon Valley: “They call it the Silicon Prairie.”

It looks like IBM’s been binge-watching in quarantine, too: The company just announced a 10-year partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, a nonprofit academic medical center, centered on AI, quantum, and cloud computing.

Here’s the plan: Establish the “Discovery Accelerator,” a research engine using emerging tech to advance healthcare and life sciences. Think: discovering new molecules and expanding knowledge on viral pathogens, treatments, and more.

That engine will be powered, in part, by a quantum computer. IBM plans to release the Q System One in 2023, and the Cleveland Clinic will be the first private-sector organization to buy and operate its own IBM quantum computer. (Right now, they can only be found in the company’s own labs and data centers.)

• The computer will analyze vast amounts of data and power large-scale simulations that just aren’t possible without quantum computing.

Big picture: Cleveland Clinic gets access to pioneering healthcare research tech, and IBM gets its first major quantum computer sale...and a whole lot of exposure in the healthcare sector. The latter likely tops IBM’s “pros” list after the disappointments of Watson, which made headlines for under-delivering in healthcare AI.