October 19, 2026
From Cleveland Jewish News, Authored by: Ellen Braunstein
...Across Northeast Ohio health systems, philanthropy is doing more than supplementing hospital budgets. Donations can accelerate research, bring new technology into use sooner, allow hospitals to pilot programs and provide the seed money needed to turn promising ideas into patient care...
At University Hospitals, philanthropy can operate at an even earlier stage – providing the money needed to create research programs that later attract substantially more support.
Dr. Daniel Simon, president of academic and external affairs and chief scientific officer at University Hospitals, also in Cleveland, pointed to the Harrington Discovery Institute, founded with a $50 million gift from the Harrington family in 2012.
Since then, the institute has supported 240 researchers developing new medicines at 78 institutions, launched 53 companies and advanced 29 drugs into clinical trials, Simon said.
“We never would have had the Harrington Drug Discovery Institute without the philanthropic support of the Harrington family. Period,” Simon said.
He cited two other examples: philanthropic support that established UH’s Veale Healthcare Transformation Institute, which focuses on new models of care and technology, and a $20 million gift that launched the Haslam Sports Innovation Center, which develops technology related to sports performance and safety.
Simon said such gifts provide the “seed” that allows hospitals to recruit researchers, clinicians and technical experts and then pursue additional government, foundation and industry funding.
That role has become particularly important amid uncertainty in federal research funding. Simon said some UH and Case Western Reserve University researchers have experienced delays in National Institutes of Health awards, prompting the institutions to use philanthropic dollars as bridge funding to keep established laboratories operating.
