TAFP Foundation funds family medicine research, awards scholarships
TAFP Foundation funds family medicine research, awards scholarships
The TAFP Foundation raises and distributes funds for medical student scholarships for students planning to pursue a career in family medicine, for family medicine office-based research, for family medicine student interest group activities at medical schools in Texas, and for family medicine resident activities.
The Foundation met during Interim Session and approved funding for two new practice-based, primary care research studies. The next round of applications is due June 1. For more information and to apply, go to the Foundation section of www.tafp.org. Support for TAFP Foundation research is made possible by the Family Medicine Research Champions.
The first funded study is “Practical Opportunities for Healthy Behaviors” by Robert Ferrer, M.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio Department of Family and Community Medicine. Ferrer et al. “seek to evaluate the social and environmental contexts that shape primary care patients’ health behaviors” and will “test the validity of a measure of practical opportunities for diet and physical activity that primary care practices can use to assess a patients’ potential success in altering those behaviors,” particularly those receiving care through the Residency Research Network of Texas.
The second is “Comparative Analysis of the FRAX and the Male Osteoporosis Risk Estimation Score” by Alvah R. Cass, M.D., S.M., of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Department of Family Medicine. The authors seek “to compare the effectiveness of the Male Osteoporosis Risk Estimation Score (MORES) and FRAX to identify men at risk of osteoporosis, who would benefit most from a diagnostic DXA scan.”
In addition, four TAFP-member medical students from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas were awarded educational scholarships.
Allison Peddle, a third-year student, and Kimberly Aparicio, a fourth-year student, will receive the William F. Ross, M.D. Scholarship. The TAFP Foundation scholarship’s namesake practiced many years in the San Benito, Texas, before becoming the first family practice chair at UT Southwestern. Francis Goldschmid, a fourth-year student, will receive the TAFP Foundation’s Minnie Lee Lancaster, M.D. and Edgar Lancaster, M.D. Scholarship, named for the longtime physicians who opened the first clinic in Grapevine, Texas, and help build the Grapevine Memorial Hospital and Clinic. Jennifer Chong, a fourth-year student, will receive the R. Michael Ragsdale, M.D. Scholarship.