Minneapolis, May 22, 2024 – The Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP) named Erin Westfall, DO, FACOFP, recipient of the 2024 MAFP Innovation & Research Award. This award is presented annually to an individual who has made a major contribution to the development of family medicine research and innovation.
Westfall is an assistant professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science in Rochester, Minnesota. She is also the program director and director of osteopathic education for the Mayo Clinic Family Medicine Residency – Mankato and the chair of the Social Determinants of Health Subcommittee for the Mayo Clinic Midwest Primary Care practice.
She is active in community-based participatory action research, which is a partnership approach to research involving community members, researchers and organizational representatives as equal partners in examining and working to address a problem. Her research foci includes community health, health equity, oral health, osteopathic medicine and social factors influencing health.
Westfall was instrumental in the development of the Greater Mankato Health Partnership, a community-based participatory research framework addressing health equity and modeled after the Rochester Healthy Community Partnership. She has received grant funding to study medical-dental integration, food as medicine, reducing cardiovascular disease in the Somali community of Greater Mankato, patient access to osteopathic medicine and health literacy.
Not only is Westfall active in research herself, but nominators wrote that “she encourages and inspires resident physicians to pursue innovation and research—not for the sake of research, but for the betterment of patients and improving the specialty of family medicine.”
She is an alumnus of A.T. Still University of Health Sciences Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and the University of Minnesota Mankato Family Medicine Residency (now, Mayo Clinic Family Medicine Residency – Mankato).
The MAFP is proud to honor Erin Westfall, DO, FACOFP, for her community-based participatory research, dedication to improving patient care and bringing attention to interventions that can be implemented quickly and thoughtfully.
About the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians: The Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians (MAFP) is the largest medical specialty organization in Minnesota, representing more than 3,100 family physicians, family medicine residents and medical students. The MAFP promotes the specialty of family medicine in Minnesota and supports family physicians as they provide high quality, comprehensive and continuous medical care for patients of all ages.
About the MAFP Academy Awards: The MAFP recognizes its members for their hard work and dedication to family medicine via its own Academy Awards. Minnesota family physicians, residents, medical students and researchers are nominated for a variety of awards (by educators, learners and colleagues). After reviewing nomination letters and credentials, the Innovation & Research Award recipient is chosen by a selection committee, which includes the MAFP President and members of the MAFP Research and Quality Improvement Committee. More background on the awards can be found at mafp.org/awards.
Media contact: Kendra Myers, 952-224-3876, kendra@mafp.org