MMC Foundation grants support SIU research, health care

The Memorial Medical Center Foundation awarded nearly $650,000 in health-related grants for community and health-system initiatives this spring – a record-breaking total for the foundation’s grant program. More than $169,000 of the grants were awarded to projects at SIU School of Medicine.

The grant recipients included:                                         

• Surgery: $59,051 to perform a retrospective comparative study of open, laparoscopic and robotic-assisted surgery for colorectal cancer at Memorial Medical Center.
• Surgery: $14,125 to assess the effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on the regenerative speed of nerve tissue.
• Surgery: $12,890 to compare quality of life and cost data between patients receiving medical therapy and patients undergoing thoracoscopic lung volume reduction surgery for severe emphysema at SIU School of Medicine.
• Surgery: $10,790 to upgrade cell culture incubators used to grow cells in petri dishes at SIU’s Plastic Surgery Research Lab.
• Surgery: $5,625 to study and provide an anatomic nerve map to the hand with treatment guidelines with the goal of preventing neuromas, chronic pain and opioid consumption.
• Emergency Medicine: $28,700 to update point-of-care ultrasound training equipment at the Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation.
• Emergency Medicine: $10,745 to fund the 2019 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Great Plains Regional Meeting at the Memorial Center for Learning and Innovation.
• Psychiatry: $13,003 to determine the predictors of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders who initially visited the ER and were subsequently hospitalized versus those without an initial emergency room visit.
• Internal Medicine: $10,131 to identify the best antibiotic combinations for patients infected with difficult to treat multi-drug resistant/extensively drug resistant bacteria and have limited or no options for treatment.
• Internal Medicine: $2,497 for portable equipment to assist with surgical procedures used in a collaborative study with the Department of Neurology.
• Graduate Medical Education Center: $1,700 to provide a reception that includes presentation opportunities and an award ceremony for residents and fellows who develop a quality improvement project.

Read the full list of grant recipients here.