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At IHPI, we focus on maximizing the impact of our members’ work throughout the research continuum, from the formulation of study questions to analysis and dissemination of results. This means designing and conducting research that both anticipates and responds to real-world challenges, and sharing findings with decision-makers who can use them to help address urgent healthcare issues.
Our members choose to join our Institute because they strive to have their research make a difference. Their work includes many examples that have had a notable impact in informing and transforming healthcare policy and practice, including:
Value-based insurance design
A concept developed at U-M, Value-based insurance design (V-BID), is built on the principle of lowering or removing financial barriers to high-value healthcare services. V-BID strategies have been incorporated into federal policies, including the Affordable Care Act and Medicare Advantage, as well as state health reform initiatives.
Healthcare safety
Research on the safe and appropriate use of IV devices and urinary catheters has informed national standards and practice guidelines that have prevented deadly and costly hospital-acquired complications.
Decision modeling
IHPI researchers have used simulated decision modeling to help federal committees determine which conditions all newborns in the U.S. should be screened for at birth, and who in the U.S. population should be vaccinated against shingles and influenza.
COVID-19: Vital expertise
Our researchers have provided vital expertise to government, hospital, and university leadership in Michigan during the COVID-19 pandemic by advising on testing and contact tracing programs, assisting in setting up state-level data monitoring systems, and developing epidemiologic models that have informed critical decisions at the state and local levels..
Michigan’s Medicaid expansion
A team of IHPI researchers has been conducting an independent evaluation of Michigan’s Medicaid expansion in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services since 2014, monitoring the program’s impact on the health of Michiganders and the state's health care system, and providing findings to state and federal officials overseeing this crucial program.
Maternal health
Maternal health-focused research has characterized racial and ethnic disparities in life-threatening conditions in childbirth, and also directly informed Medicaid reimbursement and commercial insurance coverage policies around contraception, affecting access to essential services for millions of women across the country.
Children’s health
A robust body of child-focused health services and policy research at U-M has helped guide state public health programs and initiatives for more than 20 years, well before IHPI came to be!
Surprise billing
An analysis of “surprise billing” practices in the U.S. contributed research evidence helped inform significant policy change: federal legislation passed in late 2020 to protect patients from unexpected bills after receiving health care or services from out-of-network providers, sometimes without their knowledge.
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Impact Accelerator: Policy engagement and communications
As IHPI has grown, we have enhanced our services to help faculty engage with policymakers and extend the reach of their research. IHPI supports our researchers in distilling policy-relevant findings from their work and explaining their implications through briefs, one-pagers, and other concise products. We have built a dissemination network to get this research evidence to those who can use it. Our Policy Engagement & External Relations team, based in Washington, D.C., and Michigan, connects IHPI faculty to elected officials and other external stakeholders in the public and private sectors at the national, state, and local levels, facilitating critical discussion and information exchange on pressing health policy issues. Meanwhile, our communications engine broadcasts news about our researchers’ work through academic and popular channels to reach both targeted and broad audiences.
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Our experts offer guidance to decision makers that is grounded in experience and evidence. IHPI researchers inform key health policy decisions by serving on state, federal, and nonprofit advisory committees, providing expert testimony and consultation to decision makers, and contributing to health policy panel discussions. IHPI looks for opportunities for our researchers to serve in these positions and helps support nominations to these committees and task forces; our faculty have had representation on the governing bodies of organizations including the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), and various National Academy of Medicine committees.
IHPI has also become an important partner in the Michigan Health Policy Forum, which organizes statewide conferences to provide state policymakers and other key stakeholders with timely, accurate, and non-partisan information on current health policy issues. In addition, our faculty are frequent presenters at Wolverine Caucus forums, which are delivered to U-M alumni working in and around Michigan state government and feature timely, relevant public policy subjects.
Because the traditional academic turnaround time for rigorous evidence is often too slow for the pace that policy decision making demands, IHPI’s Policy Sprints have launched rapid research projects aimed at developing responsive, evidence-based solutions and recommending policy considerations on timely, high-priority health policy issues. Since 2018, we have supported more than a dozen sprint projects on diverse topics, including the minimum age for tobacco sales, short-term health plans’ impact on women’s health, and scaling up COVID-19 diagnostic testing.
Since 2012, the Center for Health & Research Transformation (CHRT) fellowship has brought policymakers and researchers together to learn from a broad range of health policy leaders and subject matter experts - and from each other - through a four-month experience that includes sessions in Lansing, Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Washington, DC. IHPI has been a key partner in organizing and supporting this program, which counts more than 45 IHPI faculty members among its alumni.