July 18, 2024
The MMA is currently seeking physicians who are based in urban settings to take part in a firearm safety interview study.
Participation in this research study will be approximately one hour (this includes reviewing the study consent form, a brief demographic survey, and the 30–45-minute interview). The interviews will be conducted via Zoom.
In 2022, the MMA helped convene the Minnesota Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention Coalition, to raise awareness of the role that firearms play in suicides.
Through these efforts, in collaboration with public health researchers at the University of Minnesota, the MMA has been interviewing physicians who have talked with patients about safe firearm storage during healthcare appointments.
The purpose of the study is to learn from these physicians’ experiences to create tools and guidelines for other physicians who are interested in addressing firearm storage with their patients, but do not quite know how to approach this or what to expect from such conversations.
The goal is to make such patient conversations about firearm storage part of routine healthcare to achieve broader firearm safety. To date, the MMA has conducted 12 physician interviews.
Most of the physicians interviewed to date are practicing in small/medium rural communities or in suburban settings. The patient populations of these physicians who are at risk of firearm injury differ from the patient populations with whom the few metropolitan physician participants in the study interact. For example, urban patient populations are more ethnically diverse, younger, and at greater risk of being exposed to adverse social determinants of health as potential drivers of violence in the community.
Therefore, to capture additional experiences of firearm safety counseling among urban at-risk patient populations, the MMA is adding more physician participants who have a unique lens on firearm injury risks in urban settings.
If you are interested in participating in this study, please visit the following page, and provide your contact information: Minnesota Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention Coalition - Physician Interviews: Interest Form.
If you have any questions, please contact Juliana Milhofer.
May 29, 2025
As the Legislature works to complete its work on the state’s two-year budget, another deadline is looming. Legislators are required to pass a balanced budget before the end of the fiscal year—June 30, 2025. If they don’t meet that deadline, the state will begin a partial shutdown.
May 29, 2025
Registration has opened for the Empowering Physicians: A Night of Reflection and Engagement event, featuring best-selling author Elisabeth Rosenthal, MD.
May 29, 2025
The AMA is encouraging physicians to contact their U.S. senators and urge them to revise the reconciliation bill passed recently by the U.S. House of Representatives. While the bill includes language that would stabilize Medicare physician payments, it also threatens to cripple Medicaid and CHIP.