Former Vice President Dick Cheney was there to share his own cardio care experience during a one-on-one with NBC's Robert Bazell, as was GE CEO and the president's "jobs czar," Jeff Immelt, who came to discuss the global economy and the medtech biz in a one-one-one with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo. But one of the surprise show-stoppers at the Cleveland Clinic's Medical Innovation Summit on "State of the Heart Cardiovascular Technologies" held two weeks ago was named Watson, as in IBM's Watson. You know, the supercomputer named after IBM founder Thomas J. Watson that recently beat two Jeopardy champions on national TV.

Cleveland Clinic organizers invited Watson to take on two teams of Cleveland Clinic surgeons at the end of Day 2 of the Summit, with Watson winning handily. Audience members could watch Watson’s thought process on a big screen as it weighed evidence and evaluated potential answers to each question.

In the breakout session that followed, Watson’s ability to gather evidence and assess possibilities before arriving at a conclusion was discussed within a medical context by an IBM scientist and Cleveland Clinic docs. The conclusion seemed to be that Watson’s supercomputer capabilities will one day be harnessed in such a way that it will become another tool for healthcare providers to use when assessing patients and determining the best therapies and treatments for any given situation and that well-stated procedures for using a Watson-like computer will need to be established to ensure patient confidence while limiting the potential for malpractice cases.

Watson is far more than a novelty; it's an example of the important role managing healthcare information. While innovation was applied to Summit sessions on VADs (ventricular assist devices) and cardiovascular imaging, the need for innovation was also applied to managing information.

In fact, an award-winning nod given to the importance of managing healthcare information when the "Top 10 Medical Innovations: 2012"were announced. Chosen by two separate panels of Cleveland Clinic physicians, this year's "Number 4" innovation was labeled, "Medical Apps for Mobile Devices."

Today's apps are used for a range of purposes: accessing patient health records; scheduling and tracking medications; making available reliable, up-to-date information that enables doctors to answer patients questions bedside, if needed; and remote monitoring of high-risk patients , thus reducing office visits.

Still, managing information is, well, manageable. The real challenge for professional caregivers is keeping up with the science necessary for determining the best therapies for the best outcomes. After all, at the end of the day docs are only human, and Watson is not. So, the question likely isn't if supercomputers like Watson will eventually be one more tool for docs to rely on, but when and how.

Stay tuned.