News & Media
MSMS Foundation: Supporting Better Health Across Michigan
The MSMS Foundation makes better health possible through grants to non-profit organizations to help achieve the following:
- Stimulate, support and/or initiate lay or professional education, research programs, and projects in the field of health.
- Encourage the advancement of healthy lifestyles, the prevention, diagnosis or cure of disease, and the care of the sick and the dying.
- Provide a vehicle for the Michigan State Medical Society to foster humanitarian public service in health education and research, and to provide support for physicians who suffer impairment.
- Develop and administer funds for the support of health education and research.
- Provide a resource for the management and distribution of signature funds or bequests designated for special health education and research purposes.
DOCTORS & THEIR FAMILIES MAKE A DIFFERENCE
For more than a decade, several hundred MSMS Alliance members, physicians, medical group managers and staff members participated in the "Doctors and Their Families Make a Difference" project. Volunteers collect donated personal care items like toothpaste, diapers, socks and cleaning supplies and deliver them to shelters across Michigan.
GIFTS FROM THE HEART
MSMS members may make contributions to the MSMS Foundation through the convenient annual dues statement check-off box, as annual gifts, as memorial gifts, or as contributions of stipends. The MSMS staff also supports the MSMS Foundation throughout the year with cash donations and in-kind donations or purchases of raffle tickets and auction items.
SPECIAL FUNDS
Legacy Society donors are committed to ensuring the future of the work of the MSMS Foundation, and several have established funds to support specific goals. Those funds include:
- James D. Bruce Fellowship Fund, to recognize cancer research by UM residents
- Robert V. Danto Memorial Cancer Research Fund, for medical journals for Saginaw Cooperative Hospitals
- Kelly Family Fellowship Fund, for public policy and communications interns at MSMS
- Kevin A. Kelly Leadership Fund, to support training of medical students and physicians
- Mridha International Physician Volunteer Award Fund, to recognize and support Michigan international medical volunteers
- Doctor Krishna K. & Pamela E. Sawhney Fund for Ethics in Surgery, to support an annual Ethics in Surgery Lecture at the American College of Surgeons Michigan Chapter annual meeting.
Doctor Debasish Mridha was very grateful to work with the MSMS Foundation and help international medical volunteers. His International Physician Volunteer Award Fund recognizes and supports outstanding physician members of MSMS who provide volunteer medical care and/or counsel outside of the US.
"If through the MSMS foundation award I can encourage one doctor or one person to go there and hold their hand in a time of need, and say "we care", then the spirit of the award will be fulfilled," Doctor Mridha said. "I will feel as in some small way that I have made a difference."
HELPING DOCTORS
The MSMS Foundation makes loans to impaired physicians on a confidential basis, primarily for the purpose of paying for substance abuse rehabilitation. The loan fund is self-sustaining and depends on repayments by recipients to keep loan funds available to future applicants.
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
The MSMS Center for Physician Education & Leadership's educational programming is operated under the auspices of the non-profit MSMS Foundation. More than 100 high quality educational programs for physicians and their office staff were conducted in 2015, with highlights including the Physician Executive Development Series, ER/LA Opioid REMS, Office Staff Training, Practice Transofrmation, Choose Wisely®, Lunch and Learn Policy Series, the Maternal and Perinatal Health Conference, the Annual Scientific Meeting, and many others.
RECENT GRANTS
Recently, the Michigan State Medical Society Foundation Board of Trustees awarded grants to further the following projects:
- Respite Volunteers of Shiawassee (Shiawassee County) - Education, Support and Respite to Caregivers
- Western Michigan University Homer D. Stryker, MD, School of Medicine (Kalamazoo) - Kalamazoo Diabetes PATH Study
- Camp Kesem-Michigan State University (Western half of Michigan) - to help send children who are affected by a parent's cancer to a weeklong summer camp with other children in the same situation.
- Oakland University, William Beaumont School of Medicine (Oakland County) - to support a hands-on gardening and cooking program that promotes healthy eating for low-income women living in transitional housing at the Lighthouse of Oakland County.
- Turning Point, Inc. (Mt. Clemens) - to support the Community Advocacy Program, which provides vital services to families exiting a domestic shelter.
- Hope Medical Clinic, Inc. (Ypsilanti) - to help replace computers and printers at the clinic with technology robust enough to support clinic operations, particularly in the area of Electronic Medical Records.
- Love INC. Free Health Clinic (Grand Haven) - to help equip and upgrade the medical equipment in the clinical exam rooms, which will allow better care of patients and increase the reach of clinic services.
As the Foundation for physicians by physicians, the MSMS Foundation's primary purpose is to advance the field of health for the public good and to function as the umbrella organization for the MSMS Center of Physician Education and Leadership. The Foundation's philanthropic focus is to support projects and activities that are meaningful to the medical profession, including the following:
- Making the practice of medicine and the healthcare system better
- Ensuring the provision of good patient care
- Supporting the practice of tomorrow, new physicians and the development of physician leadership
- Supporting community-based projects that engage physicians and community leaders
To make your 2015 contribution, please visit msms.org/Foundation.