Davis, Adler-Milstein and Bagley win IHPI Impact Accelerator Awards

At the annual IHPI Member Forum on November 12, the winners of this year's IHPI Impact Accelerator Awards were announced. The awards recognizes members who demonstrate a commitment to impacting policy or practice based on their high quality research, engagement with policy makers and an endorsement from an "end-user" of research. Winners were awarded $1,000 to their faculty research accounts and had a research brief about their work written by IHPI communications staff.

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James F. Burke, M.D., M.S.,assistant professor, department of neurology, and staff physician, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, was selected as the Gilbert S. Omenn Fellow by the National Academy of Medicine. The academy selected five outstanding health professionals for its class of 2015 NAM Anniversary Fellows. Chosen from excellent groups of nominees, they were selected based on their professional qualifications, reputations as scholars, professional accomplishments, and relevance of current field expertise to the work of the NAM and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The fellows will collaborate with eminent researchers, policy experts, and clinicians from across the country.

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Ghaferi tapped for analytical expertise in FTR in new AHRQ grant

Recognizing every year that at least 100,000 Americans die after undergoing inpatient surgical procedures and another 100,000 patients die while hospitalized for a medical illness, a team of researchers from U-M and Dartmouth are designing a Failure to Rescue-Patient Safety Learning Lab (FTR-PSLL). The team was awarded a $4 million Agency for Healthcare Research Quality grant to address gaps in understanding and gaps in rapid translation impeding ideal integrated rescue systems within hospitals.

Amir Ghaferi, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of surgery and director of the Michigan Bariatric Surgery Collaborative, will lead a team that will investigate the human factors (key facilitators and barriers) that can make up the ideal rescue environment. Ghaferi was specifically tapped to lead this part of the research because of his expertise in safety-related practices and behaviors that are related to FTR

Bagley in NEJM: Can employers refuse to disclose how much they pay for health care?

Nicholas Bagley, J.D, assistant professor of law at the U-M Law School, has written a Perspective piece for the New England Journal of Medicine. The article, "Transparency and the Supreme Court ---Can Employers Refuse to Disclose How Much They Pay for Health Care?" references the impending Supreme Court case, Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual, and the threat to cripple all-payer claims databases and other state initiatives that aim to improve the health care system. Gobeille involves the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), a complex federal statute that regulates employee benefit plans. Among other things, the statute sets minimum funding requirements for pension plans, obliges plan administrators to act in employees' best interests, and requires employers to provide their employees with information about their benefits.

Monica Lypson, M.D., M.H.P.E

Assistant Dean for Graduate Medical Education, Medical School

Professor, Internal Medicine and Learning Health Sciences, Medical School

Teaching health policy to future healthcare professionals is critical, particularly in the areas of health equity, quality, and value, as well as patient safety, health politics, and law. My focus on this issue has been to continuously bring these issues to the forefront of the medical education community, particularly in light of rapid changes in the healthcare environment and the direct relationship that has to health professions education and training. For instance, how might you educate and prepare a new generation of health professions in light of the Affordable Care Act?

Michael Mathis, M.D.

Clinical Lecturer, Department of Anesthesiology, Medical School

I am thinking about how to better manage patients with heart failure during the perioperative period, that is, the time before, during, and after surgery. Even though heart failure is the single greatest risk factor for major complications during and after surgery, much is to be learned about how it is managed perioperatively.Currently, much is known about how heart failure presents and is managed on a chronic basis; however the stress of surgery presents a unique challenge to the perioperative care team, in which there is potential for significant progress to be made.

U-M launches new app for breast cancer patients 

Patients being treated for breast cancer at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center now have a new way to help manage the overload of information and reminders that comes with cancer diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy or radiation treatment. A new mobile app called Breast Cancer Ally was developed by breast cancer providers, led by Michael Sabel, along with the team from the Center for Health Communications Research. The free download, available exclusively for U-M patients, creates a customized mobile experience based on the patient's treatment plan. 

How nonprofit hospitals overcharge
the (under and) uninsured

A lot of people who don't have health insurance worry about getting hit with huge bills if they go to the hospital. Most consumers probably don't realize that many hospitals are supposed to let you know if you qualify for free or reduced-price care ----and charge you fairly, even if you don't have insurance. IHPI Director John Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P., tells the Washington Post, "How hospitals handle charity care is especially important in the 19 states that have not expanded Medicaid to cover people with lower incomes. In those states, there is likely to be more demand for charity care." 

This news report was triggered by the NEJM Perspectives article, "Hospital Charity Care----Effects of New Community-Benefit Requirements."

Heisler quoted in NYT about attacks on medical personnel, facilites in Syria 

A New York-based human rights organization is accusing the Syrian government of flouting international law by killing health workers, bombing hospitals and blocking lifesaving aid from entering a strategic city in northern Syria that was held by the opposition groups. IHPI member Michele Heisler, M.D., M.P.H., professor of general medicine, and author of a report detailing the accusations, told the New York Times, "It appears to be systematic. It's certainly repeated." 

Heisler's analysis appeared in the NEJM as a Perspective piece titled, " Attacks on Health Care in Syria----Normalizing Violations of Medical Neutrality?" 

Ebola one year later: American healthcare teams school themselves to avoid last year's fears
( Nurse.com ----Abbott)

Nationwide look at diabetes in Mexico paints grim picture
( U-M News Service ----Meza)

Teens and parents agree: Electronic cigarettes need restrictions
( UMHS News ----Davis)

U.S. smoking rate declines, but poor remain at high risk
( New York Times ----Warner)

Fitness versus fatness: which matters more ( Huffington Post ----Change, Richardson)

Some older patients are treated not wisely, but too much
( New York Times ----Sussman, Caverly)

Why don't more uninsured people seek health coverage? U-M study suggests knowledge gap ( UMHS News ----B. Williams)

A group of middle-aged whites in the U.S. is dying at a startling rate
( Washington Post ----Weir)