A Note from our Director
John Z. Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P.
Welcome! We are pleased to present our 2024 Year in Review, which highlights accomplishments from across the Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation (IHPI) throughout the last calendar year. Here, we provide snapshots of IHPI’s work to advance the equity, quality, safety, and affordability of healthcare and improve health through collaborative research and learning, rigorous evidence, robust communication, and policy engagement – read on to learn more!
Our institute is built on the work of U-M faculty members who study healthcare and health policy
faculty members (as of December 1, 2024)
new members in FY24
U-M Schools & Colleges represented on the Ann Arbor campus
IHPI convenes researchers from diverse fields and offers access to data, tools, and training to help them conduct research that is timely and policy-relevant. IHPI also helps researchers translate findings for policymakers and other stakeholders, and facilitates connections to key policy audiences related to their work. The result: action-oriented evidence to inform solutions for major health policy and healthcare challenges.
Honoring health policy impact
Two members received IHPI’s annual Policy Impact Award: Chad Ellimoottil, M.D., M.S., for significant contributions to research, policy, and practice within the rapidly evolving field of virtual care, and Steven Broglio, Ph.D. for sustained engagement and leadership in concussion research and policy that have led to better safety protocols on a global scale.
Bringing evidence into policymaking discourse
In September, Ashley Gearhardt, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.S., testified before the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee's Subcommittee on Health in a hearing on chronic disease prevention, highlighting the addictive nature of highly processed foods. Gearhardt also recently testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee on the role of ultra-processed foods in the diabetes epidemic.
Alex Janke, M.D., M.H.S., M.Sc., testified at a September hearing of the Oregon State Senate Interim Committee on Health Care about the harms of emergency department crowding and boarding (when admitted patients wait in the ED for an inpatient bed).
Chad Ellimoottil, M.D., M.S., testified late last year before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care about the urgent need for action to ensure continued telehealth access for people with Medicare and other forms of health insurance.
In April, four IHPI researchers shared insights on social and community factors that impact long-term care in the U.S. during a briefing with the bipartisan Congressional Long-Term Care Caucus. The briefing was organized and moderated by Courtney A. Polenick, Ph.D., who co-leads IHPI’s Aging Research Network and was also a health and aging policy fellow in Rep. Debbie Dingell’s office. During the briefing, HwaJung Choi, Ph.D., M.A., Jeff Kullgren, M.D., M.P.H., M.S., Sheria Robinson-Lane, Ph.D., M.H.A., M.S., R.N., and Xiaoling Xiang, Ph.D., M.Phil., M.S.W. shared key research findings and policy considerations to improve home and community-based services for older adults, people with disabilities, and their caregivers.
Redefining American Healthcare Award
The Healthcare Leadership Council, a coalition of chief executives of the nation’s leading healthcare companies and institutions, honored IHPI with its Redefining American Healthcare Award. The award recognizes best practices and programs in communities and organizations across the nation that optimize care for vulnerable patients.
New evidence from IHPI members’ research on improving health and healthcare
Understanding Aging
What do older adults rate as their top health-related concerns, according to IHPI's National Poll on Healthy Aging (NPHA)? Overwhelmingly, costs – for healthcare, prescription drugs, and insurance – dominated the top concerns among people ages 50 and older, across all demographic groups (check out this interactive dashboard with the findings). Other NPHA reports found that 21% of older adults used cannabis in the past year, 70% reported experiencing a scam attempt in the past two years, and nearly all older adults attested to health benefits from music. The poll also found that one in four people age 50 to 80 take aspirin regularly, but more than half of them do not have the cardiovascular risk factors for which taking aspirin to prevent heart attack or stroke is recommended. Building upon the success of the national poll, the NPHA team launched the Michigan Poll on Healthy Aging in May 2024 with support from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. The new Michigan poll gathers experiences and perspectives from adults age 50 and older across the state.
ENHANCING HEALTHCARE VALUE
The Michigan Program on Value Enhancement (MPrOVE) facilitates collaborations across IHPI and Michigan Medicine to deliver projects that right-size care, improve quality, and enhance the value of healthcare services. One recent example: a machine learning model that quickly and accurately determines the ambulatory surgery center site best suited for individual surgical cases, expediting surgical scheduling efficiency from 7.5 to 3.5 days, and saving approximately 100 hours of clinician time each month previously spent on chart review. Another project in collaboration with the Emergency Department (ED) has implemented a process to safely discharge people with low-risk pulmonary embolisms from the ED, rather than admit them to the hospital. This has increased discharge rates from 5% to 84%, demonstrated cost savings of more than $6,000 per case, and provided a more optimal patient care experience.
Key Insights Into Medicaid
2024 marks 10 years that IHPI has been conducting a rigorous evaluation of the Healthy Michigan Plan, Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program, informing important policy decisions in the state and throughout the nation. Among other findings, the evaluation has found that Medicaid expansion reduced uninsurance, promoted primary care, supported financial wellbeing, and strengthened the safety net for Michiganders with low incomes. It also found that financial incentives for participants to focus on healthy behaviors and income-based cost-sharing to foster personal responsibility around health care decisions had a limited effect in achieving those aims. The team’s summative evaluation report will be released in 2025.
Improving Disaster Readiness for Vulnerable Adults
In a year that saw record-breaking destruction from catastrophic storms, research by Sue Anne Bell, Ph.D., FNP-BC, FAAN, on the health effects of disasters on older adults is more important than ever. Dr. Bell’s work on large-scale emergencies and their impact on older adults and people with chronic conditions has informed federal disaster response and recovery policy.
FINDINGS ON Antidepressant Dispensing
Antidepressant dispensing to adolescents and young adults increased sharply after the COVID-19 pandemic began, particularly among females, according to a study led by Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., a pediatrician and researcher with the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center. The research team analyzed data from a national database representing 92% of prescriptions dispensed in U.S. pharmacies, and found that while a growing number of young people ages 12 to 25 were receiving antidepressants before the pandemic, the dispensing rate for these medications rose nearly 64% faster after March 2020.
Rapid Research on Cancer Care
IHPI’s “Policy Sprint” awards provide members with the opportunity to conduct rapid research projects on timely, policy-relevant issues. One recent Sprint project examined the federal 340B Drug Pricing program, which requires the pharmaceutical industry to provide a discount on drugs to participating hospitals and clinics serving a disproportionate number of Medicaid and low-income Medicare patients; the program was started to enable hospitals to stretch scarce resources, reach more patients, and provide more comprehensive services. The project found that patients with advanced prostate cancer from more socially vulnerable areas were more likely to stick with oral medications at hospitals participating in the 340B program than similar patients at non-340B hospitals. Discover findings from other IHPI Policy Sprint Projects
IHPI prepares researchers, trainees, and other learners to analyze and inform health policy and practice through robust education and career development programs, all supported by a vibrant community of dedicated mentors and collaborators.
eXCHANGING BOLD IDEAS
As part of the 2024 Emerging Scholars Exchange Program, Toni Coe, Ph.D., Pharm.D., presented at the University of Pennsylvania’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics on policies and strategies to improve medication use in older adults. Daniel Whibley, Ph.D., M.A., visited the University of California San Francisco’s Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies to discuss the development of a sleep and exercise program for osteoarthritis pain management.
Support for career-shaping research
The 2024 Sandy-Hassmiller Early Career Health Services Research Awardees were Tyler G. James, Ph.D., M.S., for a project examining misclassification bias in research with deaf and hard-of-hearing patients, and Terrence Liu, M.D., M.S., for a study on the use of patient portal messaging in Type 2 diabetes management. Made possible through a generous philanthropic gift, this award is one example of support for evidence-based research that can help shape future health outcomes and accelerate innovations in healthcare.
Expanding understanding of THE U.S. healthcare SYSTEM
Updated for the 2024-2025 academic year, IHPI’s “Understanding and Improving the U.S. Healthcare System” residential online course is designed to provide U-M students, faculty, staff, and alums with an engaging, practical knowledge base to better understand the complexities of healthcare organization, delivery, disparities, and financing in the United States, including a new focus on the behavioral health system. More than 4,500 U-M learners have participated in the course over the last decade.
“Impact Accelerator” training
Over the course of three days, 16 participants took part in an intensive communications and policy training program, where they focused on strategies for translating their research findings for policy and media audiences to maximize the impact of their work. Read more.
A continued tradition of successful training
For clinicians seeking intensive training in health services research and health policy, the IHPI National Clinician Scholars Program has become a nexus for the immersive preparation they need to achieve their goals, continuing an effort started at U-M in the mid-1990s. The program continues to evolve to prepare scholars to study and drive change in healthcare and health policy, locally and nationally. Program alumni have pursued exciting careers in research, academia, and public health, serving in a variety of leadership roles at institutions across the country and right here at U-M.
This year, Scholars traveled to the state Capitol in Lansing, and to Detroit (pictured), where they met with changemakers from community revitalization groups and resource centers about efforts to improve residents' health and well-being. The trips were supported by a gift from Gary and Wendy Kaplan.
IHPI’s annual Director’s Lecture in March featured a conversation with National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Director Eliseo Pérez-Stable, MD
Launched in early 2024, the LGBTQ+ Health Research Network is bringing researchers together to catalyze collaborations and amplify ongoing work
Members convened from across campus for IHPI’s annual Member Forum in April
Ice cream brought members and their research staff together outside IHPI’s administrative headquarters in September
Members and their families connected before a U-M home football game during September’s tailgate party
The September IHPI Aging Research Network event included guests from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, the Michigan Health Endowment Fund, U-M Geriatric Community Programs, the Michigan Governor’s Office, and AARP
As we reflect on another remarkable year, we are grateful for the IHPI community’s collaborative contributions to advance important research that can inform health policy and practice. In the years ahead, we look forward to continued collaboration, innovation and discovery, and a future in which we can achieve a healthier tomorrow for individuals, families, and communities.