Medical foundation

Last updated

Medical foundations are nonprofit legal entities to allow physicians or certain other health care providers a mechanism to perform research or provide medical services. Medical foundations provide more flexibility for physicians and other providers. [1] Foundations are often set up for charitable purposes, as a memorial or collective medical activity. Usually, they are organized as non-stock corporations and are eligible for federal tax exempt status.

Contents

Core principles

Medical foundations are independent organizations of scientists, physicians and support personnel to investigate key medical challenges and emerging health needs. They provide more flexibility than traditional clinics and hospitals, but more stability than many university-based research organizations. Most focus on stated research priorities and governed by a board of medical and scientific experts. Foundations often have the flexibility to transcend local barriers and collaborate internationally. [2]

Types of foundations

While all medical foundations are non-profits focused on creating advances in medical knowledge, there are a variety of types of foundations, providing funding, research or clinical trials.

Funding foundations

Some medical foundations exist to fund focus donations from private and corporate funds into strategic research efforts. Examples include the Medical Research Foundation in London and Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. [2] [3]

Research foundations

A research foundation is focused on making laboratory breakthroughs that have a tangible impact on human health. They push the boundaries of biomedical science by performing basic and applied research into the causes of diseases and novel treatment therapies. [4]

Clinical foundations

Clinical research foundations provide independent treatment centers with emerging treatments and drugs. Clinical foundations tend to be associated with a medical facility or medical university, which provides patients for whom traditional therapies have not been effective. These include the Duke ALS clinic. [5]

Some provide social psychological therapies, such as the Freedom from Torture foundation in the UK, which provides treatment for victims of torture. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clinic</span> Outpatient health care facility

A clinic is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs of populations in local communities, in contrast to larger hospitals which offer more specialized treatments and admit inpatients for overnight stays.

Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and related neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950 by Paul Cohen, who lived with muscular dystrophy, MDA accelerates research, advances care, and works to empower families to live longer and more independent lives. Renowned for The MDA Labor Day Telethon, the annual telecast aired live from 1966 to 2010 and was hosted by Jerry Lewis, who also served as MDA's national chairman.

A non-profit hospital is a hospital that does not make profits for owners of the hospital from the funds collected for patient services. The owners of non-profit hospitals are often a charitable organization or non-profit corporations. Fees for service above the cost of service are reinvested in the hospital. Other funding types for hospitals include public hospitals and for-profit hospitals.

An academic clinical trial is a clinical trial not funded by pharmaceutical or biotechnology company for commercial ends but by public-good agencies to advance medicine. These trials are a valuable component of the health care system; they benefit patients and help determine the safety and efficacy of drugs and devices, and play an important role in the checks and balances that regular commercially oriented clinical trials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tata Memorial Centre</span> Hospital in Maharashtra, India

The Tata Memorial Hospital is situated in Parel, Mumbai, in India. Also popularly known as TMH. It is one of the 62 specialist cancer treatment and research centres in India. It is closely associated with the Advanced Centre for Treatment, Research and Education in Cancer (ACTREC). The centre is the national comprehensive cancer centre for the prevention, treatment, education and research in cancer, and is recognised as one of the leading cancer centres in this part of the world. It is an autonomous body funded and controlled by Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India which also oversees the administration of institute since 1962.

Health information exchange (HIE) is the mobilization of health care information electronically across organizations within a region, community or hospital system. Participants in data exchange are called in the aggregate Health Information Networks (HIN). In practice, the term HIE may also refer to the health information organization (HIO) that facilitates the exchange.

Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre(Urdu: یادگاری اسپتالِ شوکت خانم برائے معالجہ و تحقیقِ سرطان, abbreviated as SKMCH&RC/SKMCH) is a cancer centre with locations in Lahore and Peshawar, Pakistan. It is the first project of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, a charitable organization established under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1858 of British India. It is Pakistan's largest tertiary care hospital.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Touro University Nevada</span> Private university in Henderson, Nevada

The Ithaca Health Alliance is a community-based health care cooperative based in Ithaca, New York. It incorporates financial and service assistance models to alleviate health care costs for its members and is a model for cooperative health care reform in the United States. The mission of IHA is to facilitate access to health care for all, with a focus on the needs of the un- and underinsured. IHA sponsors and operates the Ithaca Free Clinic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Psoriasis Foundation</span>

The National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) is one of the world's largest nonprofit organization serving people with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The NPF provides information and services to help people manage their condition while supporting research to find a cure. In addition to serving more than 3 million people annually through patient and professional health education and advocacy initiatives, the NPF has funded more than $10 million in psoriatic disease research grants and fellowships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern Health Sciences University</span>

Northwestern Health Sciences University (NWHSU) is a private university focused on alternative health care and located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The university has educational programs in chiropractic, Traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, therapeutic massage, Allied health professions, and human biology. The university was founded in 1941 by John B. Wolfe, DC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eva Feldman</span> American neurologist

Eva Lucille Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., F.A.N.A. is an American physician-scientist and one of the world’s leading authorities on neurodegenerative disease. Currently, she serves as the Russell N. DeJong Professor of Neurology at the University of Michigan, as well as Director of the NeuroNetwork for Emerging Therapies and ALS Center of Excellence at Michigan Medicine. She was also recently named the James W. Albers Distinguished University Professor of Neurology, the highest faculty honor at the university.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNC School of Medicine</span> Medical school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina School of Medicine is a professional school within the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It offers a Doctor of Medicine degree along with combined Doctor of Medicine / Doctor of Philosophy or Doctor of Medicine / Master of Public Health degrees.

Services for mental health disorders provide treatment, support, or advocacy to people who have psychiatric illnesses. These may include medical, behavioral, social, and legal services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sambhavna Trust Clinic</span>

The Sambhavna Trust Clinic, or Bhopal People's Health and Documentation Clinic, is a charitable trust run by a group of doctors, scientists, writers and social workers who have been involved with various aspects of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, India, ever since its occurrence in December 1984.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saint Thomas - Rutherford Hospital</span> Hospital in Tennessee, United States

Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital, formerly Middle Tennessee Medical Center, is a 286-bed private, not-for-profit hospital located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States. Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital is a member of Saint Thomas Health.

Michael (Mike) Simon Youle is a British doctor and clinical researcher specializing in HIV treatment. He publicised the concept of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PREP) for HIV and has studied the health economics of HIV therapy. In 1995, he was listed as one of 40 influential gay men by The Independent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palo Alto Medical Foundation</span> Not-for-profit healthcare organization in the San Francisco Bay Area

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation for Health Care, Research, and Education (PAMF) is a not-for-profit health care organization with medical offices in more than 15 cities in the Bay Area. It has more than 900 physicians and had over 2 million patient visits in 2008.

The primary care behavioral health (PCBH) consultation model is a psychological approach to population-based clinical health care that is simultaneously co-located, collaborative, and integrated within the primary care clinic. The goal of PCBH is to improve and promote overall health within the general population. This approach is important because approximately half of all patients in primary care present with psychiatric comorbidities, and 60% of psychiatric illness is treated in primary care.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cultural competence in healthcare</span> Health care services that are sensitive and responsive to the needs of diverse cultures

Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the ability for healthcare professionals to demonstrate cultural competence toward patients with diverse values, beliefs, and feelings. This process includes consideration of the individual social, cultural, and psychological needs of patients for effective cross-cultural communication with their health care providers. The goal of cultural competence in health care is to reduce health disparities and to provide optimal care to patients regardless of their race, gender, ethnic background, native languages spoken, and religious or cultural beliefs. Cultural competency training is important in health care fields where human interaction is common, including medicine, nursing, allied health, mental health, social work, pharmacy, oral health, and public health fields.

References

  1. Medical foundations, June 25, 2013
  2. 1 2 About Medical Research Foundation
  3. Doris Duke Foundation - What We Fund
  4. About OMRF
  5. Duke ALS Clinic
  6. About Freedom from Torture