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Community Health & Medical Research

For a number of reasons, residents of our region experience a high prevalence of chronic health problems such as asthma, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. We believe that it is critical to the region’s vitality to curtail the rise in occurance of these chronic health conditions. In addition, we believe the medical research industry offers our region a promising route to substantial economic development.

Therefore, the Foundation is striving to Enhance Community Health and Medical Research by working toward realizing the following outcomes:

• Increased number of area residents that have access to quality care and adequate health insurance
• Fewer residents suffering from locally prevalent chronic health conditions
• Providers and insurers working cooperatively to implement evidence-based disease prevention and management approaches
• Residents have more opportunities to receive quality health information and support for preventive care
• Mental health issues are better defined and addressed at the community level 
• More investment is made in, and attracted to, locally-based bio-medical and bio-infomatic research 
• More local medical investments are successfully commercialized into viable regional businesses
• Research investments are focused on translational and clinical work addressing locally prevalent health conditions

Here's how we'll obtain these outcomes...

• Encourage community- and neighborhood-based efforts to facilitate enrollment into health insurance plans that share costs and are affordable to people and businesses
• Advocate for affordable health insurance for all in public forums
• Partner with insurers to discover and implement best-practice solutions to care access and cost coverage
• Partner with providers, insurers, and other stakeholders to assess and improve the provision of preventive, primary, and acute care
• Encourage new and innovative strategies for providing effective health education across communities and age groups, including evidence-based models that involve the arts, primary and secondary education, and neighborhood-level engagement (e.g.: block clubs, community centers, faith-based institutions)
• Support clinical and translational research addressing medical conditions prevalent in WNY with an emphasis on new or improved methods of managing chronic conditions such as diseases of the vascular system, diabetes, cardiopulmonary conditions, and the like
• Fund direct treatment improvements so they are available to the population of WNY as soon as is practicable
• Support research with a high potential for impacting locally prevalent conditions
• Support opportunities to commercialize successful new drugs, treatments, devices, or processes in the form of grants, program- or mission-related investments, credit guarantees, or venture capital
• Encourage the creation of new businesses and jobs in the WNY area and the attraction of new outside investment in local ventures 
• Invest in organizations dedicated to expanding the local biotech industry through the education of scientists in how to move to commercialization, convening venture capital partners to demonstrate opportunities, and providing market-rate investments in local biotech ventures 
• Consider funding for the enhancement of the quality of medical care through the recruitment of accomplished physician and clinician researchers, and medical investigators who have unique skills and expertise