Bush Foundation Fellowships

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Courage to Imagine

Bush Foundation Announces Nine Medical Fellows for 2008

Alan Kenien (BMF'90) helps create capacity in a rural state

Medical Program Overview

Since 1979, the Bush Medical Fellows Program has enabled more than 300 physicians to receive training in special areas and to develop opportunities for personal and professional growth.

The Bush Foundation established the Bush Medical Fellows Program to enhance community health care in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and northwestern Wisconsin through the professional and personal development of selected physician leaders. Each year, the Bush Medical Fellows Program awards approximately 13 fellowships that enable physicians to take a leave of absence from their practices to pursue professional and personal goals that address the health care needs of their communities. Their programs are self designed and self managed; they may last from three to 12 months. During this time, the fellowship provides a monthly stipend, as well as other financial aid.

Through the program, physicians develop clinical and leadership skills that resulted in improved health care in their communities and a rediscovery of their own potential. At the end of their fellowships, physicians return to their communities with increased confidence, greater skills and improved leadership ability. As they apply their enhanced skills and knowledge, their communities, in turn, benefit from improved patient care and health care delivery services.

Bush Medical Fellows have helped to start or improve a broad range of health care services in their communities, including full-time emergency room coverage, institution of semiautomatic cardiac defibrillation by paramedics, medical education services, school drug education programs, occupational medicine services, chronic pain clinics, obstetrical specialty services, hospices, geriatric programs, sports medicine programs, allergy clinics, new cardiology services, chemical dependency programs, patient education programs, quality assurance programs, child abuse prevention programs, physical therapy and rehabilitation services, and broadcast education medical information systems.

In addition to clinical studies, most fellows develop better leadership skills, which they use in their communities by serving on regional emergency medical committees, hospital boards, planning boards, patient advisory committees, public health advisory boards and sex abuse councils. They also use these skills in roles such as writers, educators, consultants, medical directors, CEOs, entrepreneurs, county health officers, coroners, department chairpersons, researchers and mentors.

Administration

The staff of the Bush Medical Fellows Program consists of the program director and assistant director. The Bush Medical Fellows Policy Board serves in an advisory capacity and in the selection of grant recipients. The nine-member Board consists of physicians and non-physicians who are knowledgeable in health care issues.

Race, sex or religion will have no bearing on the selection of fellows. We will keep the information applicants furnish confidential, and it will be used only by the program staff, Policy Board and selection panels. Applicants should make copies of their applications for their own use, as we cannot return the application or provide copies.

Applicant files are confidential to the program; however, the Minnesota Historical Society archives approved fellowship applications and makes them available to the public in 50 years.