Courtesy photo.
SANTA BARBARA — Physicians, nurses, UCSB scientists and other researchers gathered in March for the 2023 Collaborative Research Symposium, hosted by the Cottage Health Research Institute (CHRI) in collaboration with Santa Barbara City College; California State University, Channel Islands; University of California, Santa Barbara and Westmont College.
The event at the Ritz-Carlton Bacara provided an opportunity to bring together healthcare providers, academic faculty and other researchers to share ideas, make new connections and attract grant funding. Nearly 200 participants gathered in person and virtually for the free one-day event that included topics on health disparities and equity in the workplace.
Now in its 9th year, the annual CHRI symposium is made possible through the generous support of Janet Dunbar and Alex Pananides who envisioned a way to inspire collaboration and joint projects among local clinicians and researchers that have the potential to improve health and medicine.
The keynote presentation was “Using Comics for ‘Real Talk’ about Workplace Equity” by Melanie Ho, PhD, award-winning author and speaker.
“Since 2016, the expanded growth of clinical and translational research throughout Santa Barbara demonstrates an ongoing and strong partnership between Cottage, UCSB and beyond,” said Richard Beswick, PhD and Vice President of Research and Chief Research Officer at Cottage Health. “In addition to sponsored research, CHRI oversees more than 200 non-sponsored research projects, many of which include researchers from UCSB, Santa Barbara City College, Westmont and other community partners. The Symposium continues to garner increased interest from the community at large, and we are pleased to offer this event to highlight the clinical research advancements in Santa Barbara.”
To view video recordings from the Research Symposium, visit here cottagehealth.org/researchvideos23.
For more than 25 years, research has been an integral part of Cottage Health. CHRI offers resources for researchers to support the translation of clinical and academic research, and to advance graduate and post-graduate training for future physicians and other healthcare professionals.
About Cottage Health cottagehealth.org — The not-for-profit Cottage Health is the leader in providing advanced medical care to the Central Coast region. Specialties include the Cottage Children’s Medical Center, Level 1 Trauma Center, Neuroscience Institute, Heart & Vascular Center, Center for Orthopedics, and Rehabilitation Hospital. The Cottage Health medical staff is comprised of more than 700 physicians, many with subspecialties typically found only at university medical centers. Last year, the Cottage Health hospitals in Goleta, Santa Barbara and Santa Ynez Valley provided inpatient care for 19,000 people, treated 81,000 patients through their 24-hour emergency departments and helped deliver 2,000 newborns.