About Sutter Health Research

Research is an integral component of Sutter Health’s approach to improving the wellness of our patients and communities. We create and conduct innovative research to enhance health and transform care delivery.

Many clinicians at Sutter Health are also researchers who publish findings, develop novel protocols, and pioneer new tests and treatments at a rate more commonly found at major universities. All of this activity fosters improved patient care, and enables Sutter Health to recruit and retain clinician-scientists of the highest caliber.

Sutter Research Highlights

• An integrated research enterprise serving three million patients annually at community hospitals across Northern California
• Study sites across the country and around the world
• Approximately 300 ongoing clinical trials compatible with a wide range of patients’ health concerns. Almost 100 new clinical studies are initiated annually, funded by the federal government, industry sponsors, and private funding agencies.
• Diverse research opportunities to train the next generation of clinical investigators
• Sutter Health investigators led successful NIH proposals in 2018 totaling approximately $80 million over five years
• More than 270 Sutter Health research peer-reviewed journal authorships annually
• Research supports Sutter’s commitment to advancing health equity: providing high-quality, safe care for all patients regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and socioeconomic status

Our Impact

• Through research, Sutter Health investigators are changing clinical practice and transforming early-stage ideas into new diagnostics and therapeutics including companion diagnostics, novel methods to detect and treat ischemic stroke, and more precise, combinational and targeted therapies for aggressive cancers.
• Approximately 300 clinical trials offer patients access to an extensive portfolio of studies potentially suited to their health concerns. By simplifying the process for patient entry into treatment trials, Sutter Health research consortia investigators can enroll patients from anywhere in Northern California.  We participate in many nationwide clinical studies sponsored by the National Cancer Institute and other National Institutes of Health institutes, foundations and philanthropic groups, and the pharmaceutical industry.
• Sutter Health’s Center for Health Systems Research (CHSR) improves the care, experience, and health of all patients, clinicians, and communities through innovative research, development, and analytics that have an immediate impact on the delivery of care. CHSR accelerates the continuous transformation and evolution of health systems. Take a look at examples of CHSR research. 
• Multi-center cohort studies — with up to 10,000 participants in areas including women's health, aging and longevity, cognitive function, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer prevention, osteoporosis, and arthritis — created and led by the San Francisco Coordinating Center have significantly advanced our knowledge of common chronic illnesses. Learn more about one of SFCC’s latest studies.
• Sutter's Center for Precision Medicine Research is driving revolutionary changes in individualized treatment and care for patients. Thanks to our diverse patient base, billion dollar investment in electronic health records, research infrastructure capabilities, and a centralized laboratory facility, Sutter’s biobank is helping increase the pace of medical discoveries to improve care through uniquely personalized treatment. Find out how precision medicine at Sutter Health helps advance cancer care.
• Research at Sutter supports the organization’s Advancing Health Equity initiative. Through the groundbreaking Health Equity Index (HEI), Sutter Health is taking major steps to build on the benefits of our integrated, coordinated network of care and further health equity within our system and across the country.