Innovation, influence and business in America's medical cities.

Updated 3:51 p.m.The Cleveland Clinic has wooed and won a heavy hitter in the world of major philanthropic campaigns from the University of Pennsylvania Medical School.Armando L. Chardiet will become the Clinic’s Institutional Relations and Development chairman, and executive director of its $1.25 billion fundraising campaign on July 1.AdvertisementChardiet led the Pennsylvania medical school [...]

The Joan C. Edwards Charitable Foundation will invest an initial $10 million to $12 million over a decade to create a medical education pipeline in Cleveland and prime it withminority and low-income students from John Hay High School.The program has the potential to educate 98 doctors over the next 60 years through a potential total [...]

Philanthropist and arts patron Toby Devan Lewis is giving $625,000 over five years to the MetroHealth System to help patients overcome paralysis and improve their quality of life as they rehabilitate from traumatic injury. The gift will support functional electrical stimulation and art therapy to advance the healing process.

Akron Children’s Hospital Medical Center has received a $1 million gift commitment from longtime CEO William Considine and his wife, Rebecca, to help launch a research institute at the children’s hospital system. The gift, which comes during William Considine’s 30th year as leader of Akron Children’s, will establish the Rebecca D. Considine Clinical Research Institute.

The Cleveland Clinic has received a $2 million gift from the Borra Family Foundation to establish the Pier C. and Renee A. Borra Family Endowed Chair in Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The first holder of the chair will be Dr. Arthur McCullough Jr., chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and vice chair for research and education in the Digestive Disease Institute, who will use the money to study fatty liver disease.

Case Western Reserve University has received a $20.5 million gift from the estates of Dr. Donald Goodman, who graduated from Case dental school in 1945, and his wife, Ruth Weber Goodman. The gift will establish endowed chairs in cancer and cardiovascular research at the university’s medical school, as well as support education at its medical and dental schools.

MetroHealth Medical Center is close to opening a Ronald McDonald Family Room — a feat of fundraising success at a time when raising money is as tough as the economy. The MetroHealth Foundation raised $128,500 from foundations, corporations and individuals to build the family room.