MMA Foundation Distributes $13K in Grants

December 22, 2022

The MMA Foundation has awarded nearly $13,000 in grants to impact the scholarship of seven medical students and residents at Minnesota medical schools and residency programs.  

The MMA Foundation’s 2023 grant recipients follow: 

Petra Elias, MD, a resident at Mayo, will use her Reuter-Lien Health Equity & Well-being scholarship to advance a project to determine if patients of minority backgrounds and/or those with limited English proficiency sustain higher rates of unintended dural puncture, and determine if epidural blood patches are performed less frequently for management of PDPH in the Hispanic patient population. 

The Reuter-Lien Health Equity and Well-being award is a new scholarship opportunity for the Foundation. It was created by gifts from Nicholas Reuter, MD, who has given generously to help the Foundation build upon the significant gift of the late Richard Lien, MD. The Reuter-Lien scholarship program creates opportunities for medical students, residents, and fellows to pursue research or projects to create positive change for health equity or student/trainee/patient well-being.  

The MMA Foundation has also awarded six Friedman-Bowen Primary Care Scholarship Fund grants. This fund was established through a generous gift to Juan Bowen, MD, from Susanne Cobey to honor the lifetime work of her late husband Barry Friedman, MD. The grant program is intended to spark interest in primary care as a career and to encourage the capabilities of medical students by providing support for student-initiated and student-designed projects that show promise to improve the knowledge or practice of primary care. 

This year’s Friedman-Bowen grant recipients follow:  

• Elizabeth Farkouh will use her award to determine whether a brief intervention of primary care provider-initiated education about alcohol and breast cancer risk is effective at increasing awareness, improving intentions to limit alcohol, and reducing alcohol use among alcohol-consuming females. 

• Jordan Richardson plans to provide safe, trauma-informed, sex-positive and gender-inclusive sexual and reproductive health education and resources to people experiencing houselessness in Rochester, while building community and coalition between Mayo Clinic medical trainees, staff at The Landing, Planned Parenthood, and the unhoused community. 

• Vineet Raman will explore how to provide better, community-centered care for South Asian patients/communities while also improving the community's awareness of cardiac health disparities.  

• Maritza Steele will use her award to educate the public about Mpox (formerly referred to as monkeypox) and resources to reduce the impact of the outbreak and address the stigma associated with viral transmission.   

• Mitra Moazzami plans to increase awareness among Mayo Clinic Rochester internal medicine residents and their confidence in identifying and reporting human trafficking victims.   

• Lauren McPherson will evaluate the impacts of interpreter format (virtual vs. in-person) on healthcare delivery and experience for patients, providers and interpreters using focus group conversations with certified medical interpreters. 

To learn more about the MMA Foundation’s scholarship programs, contact Kristen Gloege.