MMA Looking for Additional Volunteers for Firearm Safety Physician Interview Study

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.