Dr. Matthew Solomon pictured above
Dr. Matthew Solomon, a nationally renowned cardiologist and researcher, joined Sutter Health as the system’s first chief scientific officer in February. Learn more as he shares how research at Sutter is bringing discoveries from the “bench to bedside” to transform health care.
Q: What excites you most about your new role at Sutter?
A: Sutter has an incredible history of research and discovery to drive innovations in clinical care. Over the past several months, I’ve loved getting to know our research teams and collaborators, and identifying opportunities to embed science into the care we deliver every day at Sutter.
We have incredible teams conducting clinical trials, health systems research and outcomes research, all of which directly improves care delivery. We also have discovery scientists unlocking the underlying causes of disease, to help patients get and stay well.
I’m excited to support these teams across the organization to maximize their impact and success. Our focus is connecting research at Sutter with our growing clinical service lines and medical education programs to best serve our patients and communities.
Q: How will your role help shape the future of care at Sutter Health?
A: Research is critical to delivering cutting-edge and high-quality care to our patients and to encourage and maintain clinical excellence. By integrating research and innovation into clinical practice, we can accelerate discovery and improve patient outcomes. Research at Sutter is an innovation engine that continually elevates the care we deliver every day.
Q: What’s your vision for building Sutter into a destination center for research and clinical trials?
A: At Sutter Health, real-world clinical challenges drive research—and that research drives solutions. Together, we will transform Sutter into a true learning health system, where insights from patient care fuel discovery, and discoveries rapidly translate into better outcomes across the communities we serve.
One goal along that path is to make Sutter a national leader in clinical trials, particularly in high-impact areas like cancer, neuroscience, orthopedics & sports medicine, and heart and vascular care. Few community-based health systems conduct their own research, run trials and train the next generation of physicians through nationally accredited residency and fellowship programs. That combination is powerful.
It allows us to deliver highly specialized, evidence-based care across all communities in our integrated network—bringing innovation closer to where people live and accelerating a higher standard of care systemwide.
Q: You’ve worked extensively with AI and machine learning. How do you plan to implement these tools within clinical care at Sutter?
A: AI can help us innovate and personalize care, free physicians to build stronger connections with their patients and can directly engage with patients in ways that fit into their lives. The technology is transformative, and will take patient care to the next level to make it more predictive and preventive.
But, we should also be mindful that health care is delivered by people, for people. AI doesn’t change that. AI is a tool that augments the clinical data available to physicians to help them better care for patients – it will not replace physicians.
Q: You’re planning to develop a system-wide aortic care program. What will that look like, and why is it important?
A: Aortic aneurysms are silent killers and affect tens of thousands of our patients. Managing and treating the condition requires specialized care that isn’t always widely available. Using a coordinated, data-driven approach, we will proactively reach and identify patients and enroll them into a comprehensive, personalized population management program. Through that program we can deliver high-quality, safe care and ensure patients are referred to aortic specialty cardiologists. It will be a great opportunity to merge advanced data and analytics to team-based, specialized care delivered across Sutter’s heart and vascular service line.
Learn more about research and enrolling in clinical trials at Sutter Health.
