The Cleveland Clinic's first Top 10 Medical Innovations list highlights technologies likely to have a big impact on healthcare in 2007. The list of up-and-coming devices and therapies was selected by a panel of Clinic physicians and scientists and was unveiled at the Clinic's 2006 Medical Innovation Summit. “The list is an example of significant technologies that will help fight many conditions for which there have been limited or non-existent treatment options,” says Chair of the Bakken Heart Brain Institute Marc Penn. In ascending order, the innovations include:

Convection-enhanced delivery of drugs. This emerging method administers medication directly to the site where needed, without exposing the rest of the body to a drug's effects.

Left ventricular assist system is the first implanted ventricular assist device that senses when to increase or decrease the rate of blood flow. The device takes over most function of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber.

Targeted cancer therapies use second generation, small molecules called tyrosine kinase inhibitors to block or modulate disease. The therapies provide treatments for advanced cancers, such as renal cell carcinoma.

Endografting is a minimally invasive repair technique originating in cardiology and now being used to treat vascular disease, such as thoracic abdominal aneurysms.

Ranibizumab drug therapy inhibits uncontrolled blood vessel formation in the eye, the primary cause of age-related macular degeneration and the leading cause of new blindness in older Americans.

Bronchial thermoplasty (BT) wards off asthma attacks. BT controls an application of heat in the lungs to improve pulmonary function and reduce asthma symptoms.

Optical coherence tomography provides noninvasive imaging for treating and diagnosing eye diseases, such as diabetic retinopathy and macular holes.

Neurostimulation for psychiatric disorders, such as Deep Brain Stimulation, is emerging as a treatment option for millions suffering from Treatment Resistant Depression and Treatment Resistant Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Designer therapeutics using selective receptor antagonists block receptor activation that leads to improved patient outcomes. Examples include therapeutics that block the peripheral side effects, such as constipation and nausea, and opioid pain medications which can adversely affect patients and lengthen hospitalizations. Designer therapeutics also control the body's stress response to mediate eating and smoking, and increase good cholesterol using niacin. And the topping the list:

Cancer vaccines are targeted therapies that prevent cancer and treat patients according to their type of cancer. One example is an HPV vaccine developed to prevent cervical cancer caused by human papillomaviruses.