We are dedicated to improving the health of infants, children, and adolescents in Minnesota.
The mission of the Minnesota Academy of Pediatrics Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, is to protect and improve the health of all Minnesota children and teens through pediatrician-led programs, initiatives and special projects. The foundation depends entirely on individual contributions and grant funding to carry out its work.
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Updated 10/30/19
Mental Health Screening in Child and Teen Check-ups
Through grant funding from the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Department of Human Services, this project supports increasing mental health screening and referral in children/teens receiving Child and Teen Check-ups using a quality improvement model. It will provide webinar training to Minnesota clinics/clinicians serving children/teens in their practice. This will include an MOC4 module for participating clinicians.
HPV Immunization and Adolescent Immunizations
Through funding from the American Academy of Pediatrics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this project supports a three-state (Minnesota – North Dakota – South Dakota) learning collaborative for increasing promotion of HPV immunization and adolescent immunizations for teens using a quality improvement model. It will provide live and webinar training to Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota pediatricians. A webinar-based learning collaborative will include clinics/clinicians as part of the MNAAP immunization work group. This will include an MOC4 module for participating clinicians.
Newborn Screening Communication
Michigan Institute of Public Health funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration to support multi-state learning collaboratives for improving newborn screening communication with parents and information about genetic screening using a quality improvement model. The project will provide live and webinar training for pediatricians as a “virtual” learning collaborative. This will include an MOC4 module for participating clinicians.
Updated 5/2/16
Eliminating Health Disparities Initiatives Grant
Eliminating Health Disparities Initiatives (3-year project that ended in 2019) to increase MMR and HPV immunizations in rural Minnesota and with Somali and Karen residents; to increase the number of bilingual community health workers available in rural Minnesota to work on maternal and child health education that promote immunizations; and to provide education on immunization issues to pediatric clinicians. This project was funded by the Minnesota Department of Health.
Screening for Poverty: Bridging Books and Benefits
2-3 pediatric clinics in Minnesota counties with high levels of child poverty and/or food insecurity will partner with the Children’s Defense Fund-Minnesota and Community Action Program (CAP) navigators to assist pediatric clinicians in offering help to families, in a language they understand, to access public benefits and health insurance for which they are eligible, but not enrolled. Benefits will include nutritious food assistance, nutrition education (WIC and SNAP-Ed), health insurance, early childhood scholarships, literacy support, and earned income tax credits. Project deliverables will include: sharing best practices/lessons learned from participating clinics so that their models can be replicated among other clinics serving children in poverty; and an online toolkit for pediatric clinicians, social workers and navigators with resources that have a direct and positive impact on social determinants of health.
Pediatrician lead: Neil Bratney, MD
Contract with: AAP
Completion Date: June 2018
Contact:debilzan@mnaap.org
Center of Excellence for Children with Complex Needs (COE4CCN)
MAPF is providing support for clinics/pediatricians participating in the development of rigorous standardized set of measures for routine quality assessment/quality improvement for children/teens with social complexity and/or medical complexity. This multi-state pediatric quality improvement project is under the direction of Rita Mangione-Smith, MD of Seattle Children’s Hospital under a four-year grant award from the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ). It involves more than 50 pediatricians and nurse practitioners from 29 clinics in MN and ND serving large numbers of children on MN Medicaid.
Pediatrician leads: Anne Edwards, MD; Jeff Schiff, MD
Contract with: Minnesota Department of Human Services
Completion Date: 2016
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
Screening for Food Insecurity
Four clinics that serve a high number of SNAP or SNAP- eligible patients will screen for nutrition insecurity and establish or improve the referral process to SNAP-Ed and related community resources and programs. Funds will be provided to participating clinics to work with SNAP-Ed to host a class on healthy eating on a budget and recruit participants.
Pediatrician lead: Rachel Tellez, MD
Funded by: University of Minnesota Extension Program
Completion Date: November 2016
Contact: debilzan@mnaap.org
Improving HPV Rates
Two AAP grants were received related to improving HPV rates and implementing an HPV Quality Improvement project at 4 clinics and offering an HPV MOC4 module to interested pediatricians in the 9 state Midwest region. Over 130 pediatricians are participating.
Pediatrician leads: Vijay Chawla, MD
Funded by: AAP
Completion date: September 2016
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
Foster Care Learning Collaborative
The health needs of Minnesota children/teens in foster care are significant. Many wrestle with developmental delays and learning disabilities, thoughts of suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, tobacco or drug use, unwanted pregnancies/STDs and obesity. The majority of Minnesota’s children in foster care live in greater Minnesota. For these reasons, MNAAP is sponsoring a “virtual learning collaborative” especially aimed for greater Minnesota pediatricians, nurse practitioners and clinic staff interested in learning best practices and applying new strategies to improve care delivery and coordination for patients placed in out-of-home care. Physician-led training focuses on legal, educational, developmental, behavioral health, oral health, and physical health. Participation is open to MDs, NPs and PAs in Minnesota. Clinics in greater Minnesota are strongly encouraged to participate. A small stipend is available to clinics seeking to update their Electronic health record to update order sets and prompts for care of children/teens in out-of-home care.
Pediatrician lead: Amelia Burgess, MD, MPH
Funded by: AAP for $15,000.
Completion date: June, 2017
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
Center of Excellence for Children with Complex Needs (COE4CCN)
MAPF provided support for clinics/pediatricians participating in the development of rigorous standardized set of measures for routine quality assessment/quality improvement for children/teens with social complexity and/or medical complexity. This multi-state pediatric quality improvement project is under the direction of Rita Mangione-Smith, MD of Seattle Children’s Hospital under a four-year grant award from the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ). It involves more than 50 pediatricians and nurse practitioners from 29 clinics in MN and ND serving large numbers of children on MN Medicaid.
Pediatrician leads: Anne Edwards, MD; Jeff Schiff, MD
Contract with: Minnesota Department of Human Services
Completion Date: June, 2015
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
Behavioral Health/Primary Care Integration
A grant for $50,000 was received to implement integrated behavioral health and pediatric primary care to support six pilot clinics in addressing behavioral health issues. Funds will be provided to the participating clinics.
Pediatric leads: Mary Pohl, MD, Margie Hogan, MD, Connie Blackwell, RN, CNP , Pamela Bloomquist, MD,MPH, David Smith, MD, Heather Winesett, MD
Contract with: MDH/DHS/CM
Completion date: May, 2016
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
Healthy Tomorrows: Investing in Health and Early Learning for New Americans
The goal of this project was to provide preventive health services outreach/education to New American families that include a pregnant mother and/or young children under age 2. Pediatricians in Minneapolis and St. Cloud who are serving Somali patients in their clinics are working with a “community health worker.” Pregnant women and infants are being enrolled and paired with a community health worker to improve immunization rates, well-child check-ups, lead screening rates and developmental screening rates from the baseline screening rates. Educational materials for use with Somali patients nationally and internationally have been developed and distributed via YouTube and other media.
Pediatrician leads: Marilyn Peitso, MD; Emily Borman-Shoap; Amelia Burgess, MD, MPH; Anne Edwards, MD
Funded by: HRSA
Completion Date: October, 2015
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
Connect 2 Care: Improving Patient Communication through Telemedicine and Social Media
MAPF provided technical assistance and resources to up to 10 clinics across the state to address Healthy People 2020 objectives aimed at increasing the use of health communications/health information technology. Each telemedicine pilot clinic will implement at least one pilot project of “real-time,” interactive telemedicine visits to optimize care, care management and/or specialty care. Each social media pilot clinic will implement at least one social media tool that engages patients/families.
Pediatrician lead: Peter Dehnel, MD
Funded by: AAP
Completion date: June 30, 2015
Contact: debilzan@mnaap.org
AAP: HPV Provider Education Grant
The chapter supported the efforts of MDH in the implementation of a CDC grant to improve Minnesota HPV rates. Projects include a webinar and other educational opportunities as well as the development of an infographic on HPV for use with social media.
Pediatrician Leads: Robert Jacobson, MD, FAAP and Dawn Martin, MD, FAAP
Funded by: AAP
Completion date: June, 2014
Foster Care Learning Collaborative
The health needs of Minnesota children/teens in foster care are significant. Many wrestle with developmental delays and learning disabilities, thoughts of suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder, tobacco or drug use, unwanted pregnancies/STDs and obesity. For these reasons, MNAAP sponsored a 7-month learning collaborative for MN pediatricians and nurse practitioners and clinic staff interested in learning best practices and applying new strategies to improve care delivery and coordination for patients placed in out-of-home care. Physician-led training focuses on legal, educational, developmental, behavioral health, oral health, and physical health. Participation is open to MDs, NPs and PAs in Minnesota. Clinics in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties are strongly encouraged to participate. A small stipend was available to participating clinics.
Pediatrician lead: Amelia Burgess, MD, MPH
Funded by: AAP
Completion date: May 2014
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
Bridges to Excellence for Early Childhood: Early Childhood Medication Administration Training
An AAP provided curriculum has been used to provide a train-the-trainer model for child care center staff in Minnesota in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health. Translation of the training materials into Somali and Hmong languages will enable a wider audience of childcare staff to be trained. An archived webinar of the training will permit expanded remote and greater Minnesota childcare providers to also be trained. Training will also be offered to foster care parents. The Bridges to Excellence for Early Childhood project promotes improved communication among pediatricians and state officials with the Minnesota Departments of Health, Human Services and Education in common goals of improving child health and early childhood education.
Pediatrician lead: Laurel Wills, MD
Funded by: AAP
Completion date: April 30, 2016
Contact: cairns@mnaap.org
MNAAP’s long-time lobbyist and policy advocate Eric Dick passed away suddenly in January 2021. Eric was deeply committed to improving the health and wellbeing of every child in Minnesota and he not only personally fought for policies to achieve this goal, but also engaged so many beyond himself in the legislative process. Through the annual MNAAP Pediatricians’ Day at the Capitol, Eric shared his incredible skill as a connector and coach, teaching our members how to turn their own stories and experiences into actionable, effective legislative meetings and messages. He was especially passionate about working with residents and medical students and relished every opportunity he had to spend time with them, both at the Capitol and in their individual programs. In that spirit, MNAAP and MAPF have established a scholarship fund in his memory.
