Michigan OPEN launches with $1.4M/year state grant to prevent surgery-related opioid addiction across Michigan
The University of Michigan recently launched a major effort to prevent surgery-related opioid addiction across Michigan through Michigan OPEN. Drawing from a $1.4 million yearly state grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Michigan OPEN, or Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network, aims to work with networks of doctors, nurses, and hospitals across the state for safer prescribing and more drug take-back events. This effort aims to drastically reduce the amount of opioids prescribed and the number of patients who continue to use opioids many months after surgery. This initiative is led by Chad Brummett, M.D., along with surgeons Michael Englesbe, M.D., and Jennifer Waljee, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. of the University of Michigan. Based at U of M, this effort will work with the well-established hospitals and healthcare providers across Michigan to better treat patients’ pain without setting them up for opioid misuse and abuse. As mortality rates due to opioid use have been quickly rising in Michigan, this effort will work against these statistics to create tactics targeted at patients and healthcare providers that can be used to reduce opioid prescribing and dependence.