Pandemic has been an 'inflection point to accelerate doing the right thing for science,' research leader says
Much has changed in the world since COVID-19 emerged and touched off a global health crisis. The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and other academic research institutions have been at the heart of the response to the pandemic, aggregating data, making discoveries, running clinical trials and developing therapies.
'Researchers see that our work is now in a different and special place in society.' - Thomas Flaig, MD
The nature of research has changed during the pandemic, accelerating and becoming more collaborative. In many ways, CU Anschutz has been a leader in adapting to the new landscape, including launching the COVIDome project, publishing the first paper from National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) data, and joining CEAL - Community Engagement Alliance Against COVID-19 Disparities - a research effort aimed at identifying and eliminating health disparities.
Thomas Flaig, MD, was appointed CU Anschutz vice chancellor for research in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the United States. Below, he shares his thoughts on how the pandemic has transformed the way academic medical centers conduct and measure research as well as the ways CU Anschutz's research enterprise has innovated in the face of the crisis.
