Meet the Medical Director
Dr. Richard A. Belkin, M.D., MSCE, FCCP has practiced Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in Santa Barbara area since 2004. He was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. He graduated cum laude with a degree in biology at Brandeis University. He obtained his MD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine where he was awarded the Gate Pharmaceutical Outstanding Student Award.
He then completed his internship and residency training in internal medicine at Stanford University and his Fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center with advanced training in Cystic Fibrosis and Bronchiectasis. He has maintained active Board Certified by the American Board of Internal medicine in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine.
Dr. Belkin is the founder and Medical Director of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Cystic Fibrosis/Bronchiectasis Program, initially accredited as an affiliate center of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in 2014. The program attained Independent Cystic Fibrosis (CF) center status in 2018 under his leadership.
As a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at USC Keck School of Medicine, Dr. Belkin is also actively involved as a teacher and lecturer in the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Medical Residency Program and has been awarded several Excellence in Teaching Awards by the Cottage Internal Medicine Residency Program. He has also served as Chief of the Pulmonary and Critical Medicine Department at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and as Medical Director of Respiratory Care.
The effect of lung transplantation on the survival of cystic fibrosis patients has been the primary area of Dr. Belkin’s academic research, and his work was published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and recognized in the Year in Review at the 2007 American Thoracic Society Meeting. His more recent research interests are related to better defining clinical characteristics of CF patients diagnosed in adulthood which lead to a recent abstract presented at NACFC in October 2018.
He has spoken on multiple occasions at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference and has lectured extensively on CF and bronchiectasis in the community and at the Great Strides Walks sponsored by the CF Foundation in Santa Barbara. His family was recently honored as volunteers of the year of the LA chapter of the CF Foundation. He is currently leading his CF team through quality improvement initiatives sponsored by the CF Foundation with the current projects of improving timeliness of care in the CF clinic and developing a robust pediatric to adult transitions program with the Ventura Pediatric Center.
Dr. Belkin lives in Santa Barbara with his wife, Liza, who practices medicine in Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and their two children.
