Stanford Report, May 17, 2006

CV institute holds 2nd annual retreat

The Stanford Cardiovascular Institute held its second annual retreat May 12-13, bringing clinicians and scientists together to encourage collaborations and to discuss fundraising.

About 60 participants discussed how the institute should focus on four core areas of collaborative interdisciplinary research: heart failure, coronary artery disease, noncoronary vascular disease and congenital heart diseases. "Those will be the cornerstones for the next several years," said Robert Robbins, MD, the institute's director, who organized the event.

The retreat opened with presentations by the institute's seed grant awardees on their work. The next day institute members separated into groups to brainstorm potential solutions to problems in the four core areas.

"We have to create a vision that people will buy into," Robbins explained. "We have to empower them and get them the resources they need."