10 Medical Innovations to Transform Healthcare in 2020

Medicine is never content with the status quo.

We are always searching for quicker, more accurate diagnosis; better patient outcomes at lower costs; safer, more effective treatments; greater accessibility; and improved life expectancy paired with a better quality of life.

The only way to reach those goals is through relentless innovation.

Today at the 2019 Medical Innovation Summit, Cleveland Clinic revealed the Top 10 medical innovations that our panel of physicians and scientists expect will have the power to transform healthcare in the coming year.

In order of anticipated importance, the Top 10 medical innovations for 2020 are:

1.     A dual-acting osteoporosis drug (romosozumab) that better strengthens bones and gives patients more control in preventing additional fractures.

 2.     The expanded use of minimally invasive mitral valve surgery provides an important new treatment option for patients who have failed to get relief from other therapies.

3.     An inaugural medication (tafamidis) for transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy that is showing a significantly reduced risk of death for those with ATTR-CM, an underdiagnosed and potentially fatal cardiovascular disease.

 4.     A new oral immunotherapy medication for peanut allergies that will offer protection against serious allergic reactions.

 5.     Closed-loop spinal cord stimulation is providing more optimal stimulation and pain relief compared to earlier generations of devices, while also lessening the need for opioid treatment.

 6.     The use of biologics – cells, blood components, growth factors, and other natural substances – in the treatment of orthopaedic repair that can harness the body’s own healing power, offering the possibility of expedited and improved outcomes.

 7.     An antibiotic-embedded envelope for cardiac implantable electronic devices that will reduce infection risks for the roughly 1.5 million patients who receive CIEDs annually worldwide.

8.     Bempedoic acid for cholesterol lowering in statin-intolerant patients that provides an alternative approach to lowering of LDL cholesterol while avoiding muscle pain, a side effect of statin use in some patients.

9.     PARP (poly-adp ribose polymerase) has improved progression-free survival in ovarian cancer and is now being approved for first-line maintenance therapy in advanced stage disease. 

10. SGLT2 inhibitors, a class of medications used in type 2 diabetes, are being explored to treat heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) – also known as diastolic heart failure – alluding to a potential new treatment option.

It’s the passion of clinicians and researchers that drives these types of changes, delivering improved results to those who need it most: our patients.

For more detail and videos about the Top 10, please visit our newsroom.