October 10, 2017 - TCO

TCO Foundation brings service to life

Ten years after being established, the Twin Cities Orthopedics Foundation continues to develop and invest in key activities to improve the quality of life for those affected by bone, joint and muscle injuries and disorders through education, research and community service.

Goals

• Support community programs and services
• Promoting an active lifestyle
• Increase orthopedic knowledge through research and education
• Foster volunteer orthopedic services to underserved local and international communities

Community service

The foundation supports community programs and services and promotes an active lifestyle. Look no further than the continued support of CycleHealth through financial contributions and TCO services and volunteers at its Kidarod, Resilinator and BreakAway Kids Tri events. CycleHealth’s events and programs allow kids to lead the way to wellness.

The foundation also supports Empower, which helps girls in grades 5-12 develop leadership skills and self-esteem through its Leadership Academy for Girls. Empower’s mission is to inspire, develop and empower the next generation of leaders with its four pillars of focus: Leadership, Confidence, Resilience and Community

Foundation initiatives

• Adopt A Training Room: The foundation donated to local high schools in support of enhancing their training room facilities. The relationship with athletic training enables the foundation to help two high schools supply their training room for much-needed supplies and equipment, including an automated defibrillator.
• ImPACT Baseline Concussion Testing: Since 2014, the foundation has provided funding for more than 10,000 high school athletes to get baseline concussion testing, ImPACT, through its association with providing athletic training services for several Twin Cities school districts.
• International Scholar Program: In 2015, two resident physicians from Leon, Nicaragua, came to Minnesota to shadow TCO physicians in clinic and surgery, participated in lectures, workshop technique labs and gave a presentation at the annual HCMC Orthopaedic and Trauma Seminar.
• Medical Mentorship Program: In 2016, Dr. Adam Bakker and the foundation started a mentorship program for high school seniors from underserved communities interested in a career in the health field. The program includes regular meetings and lab visits over a one-year period.

Medical mission trips

The foundation helps facilitate medical mission trips to a number of countries, including Nicaragua and Tanzania, for TCO physicians and team members to help in underserved international communities. It primarily provides funds for team members to travel with physicians, focusing on treating local communities through clinics and surgery.

Each year in Leon, the group provides much-needed medical equipment and implants for long-term use and is involved in the education and training of orthopedic providers at a university hospital in Leon that serves as one of only two orthopedic residency programs in the country. The program has a huge impact on orthopedic health care for the country because the orthopedic surgeons in the program go on to be the primary orthopedic caregivers in Nicaragua.

“TCO being involved in this type of volunteer work is invaluable, both for the patients and doctors in Leon as well as the volunteer,” Dr. Kurt Anderson, president of the TCO Foundation, said. “You come back with an understanding of the common needs of all people. I wish every TCO team member and physician could experience an international volunteer experience like this; it changes you.”