News

Painless: The Opioid Musical Now Available for Licensing

Painless: The Opioid Musical started as an idea by Dr. Chad Brummett, Co-Director of OPEN, when he gave a lecture to high school students and learned that almost 75% of them admitted to having easy access to unused opioids. After Dr. Brummett contacted former Chair of Musical Theatre Vincent J. Cardinal in 2018, students at […]

Expert Q&A: Improving opioid management in maternal health – Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation

Alex Peahl, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, discusses her studies assessing various aspects of postpartum pain management, with the goal of understanding and reducing the risks of opioid prescribing during and after pregnancy. Alex Friedman Peahl, M.D., M.Sc., is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Michigan Medicine and a member of the […]

A Full Year of the New OPEN; Overdose Prevention Engagement Network Celebrates 1 Year Supporting Michigan Communities

January 1st, 2025 marked the official 1-year anniversary of the new OPEN: the Overdose Prevention Engagement Network. Throughout 2024, OPEN focused on supporting community and healthcare organizations across Michigan through the key pillars of prevention, treatment, and recovery. During 2024, OPEN was busy creating new resources and services catered towards our community of healthcare professionals, […]

New Programs – Winter 2024 Newsletter

Hello, At OPEN, we are dedicated to ensuring that individuals across Michigan have access to the highest quality care. One of the pivotal medications in this field, Buprenorphine, plays a crucial role in helping people living with opioid use disorder (OUD) on their recovery journey. We are excited to announce that on March 5, 2025, […]

OPEN Sunsets Two Current Offerings; Welcomes Four Brand New Programs going into 2025

On December 13th, OPEN officially sunsetted two of its community programs; Medication Disposal Products and Safe Storage Locking Pill Bottles. Together, these programs helped thousands of people across Michigan. Final awards will be sent to organizations during the beginning of 2025. The Medication Disposal Products program allowed organizations to apply to receive Deterra Medication Pouches […]

OPEN Works to Monitor Trends in Opioid Prescribing and Persistent Use After Surgery

Postoperative opioid prescribing is meant to address moderate-to-severe pain that can’t be controlled by over-the-counter medications. Yet, prescriptions after surgery can pose unintended risks of prolonged use.1 Several recent studies suggest that inappropriate postoperative opioid prescribing is correlated with increased opioid use, as well as new persistent use among opioid naive patients – defined as […]

Candy vs Medication – Fall 2024 Newsletter

Hello , Medication safety is crucial all the time – especially during Halloween. Medication and candy can often look remarkably similar, posing a significant risk to children and people who may mistake one for the other. Can you tell which is which? Use our Candy or Medication Guide to test your identification skills and learn […]

One Year Later: What’s Been Happening with OPEN’s Naloxone Vending Machines

Exactly one year ago today, on October 11th, 2023, OPEN and Michigan Medicine unveiled the first naloxone vending machine as part of our Naloxone Distribution and Vending Machine program in the Adult Emergency Department waiting room. This program started with the goal of bringing free access to naloxone to as many people across Michigan as […]

U-M awarded $3.6M to study post-surgery pain management for individuals with opioid use disorder – Office of the Vice President of Research

The University of Michigan will use a new $3.6 million federal grant to study how pain and opioids after surgery impact people with opioid use disorder, how guidelines might be adjusted to address postsurgical pain and how to prevent opioid-related harms. The five-year study funded by the National Institutes of Health will ask patients undergoing […]

OPEN Develops Youth Board to Create Resources for Teen Opioid Use Education

At the end of August 2024, OPEN unveiled a brand new initiative: OPEN Teen. This page was created after many months of collaboration with youth leaders, analyzing and dissecting research to compile resources and information designed by teens and catered to teens.  In 2019, OPEN collaborated with Dr. Karen Cooper, an otolaryngologist at the University […]

Michigan Society of Anesthesiologists applaud OPEN’s anesthesiologists for approaches to curb opioid use, manage pain, keep patients safe – Michigan Society of Anesthesiologists

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Ahead of National Opioid Awareness Day on Sept. 21, the Michigan Society of Anesthesiologists is applauding the Overdose Prevention Engagement Network (OPEN) for their great work to share new evidence-based Opioid Prescribing Recommendations with clinicians across the state. Anesthesiologists with OPEN are leading the way to share innovative methods to better treat pain, reduce the use of opioids […]

OPEN Achieves 10,000 Download Milestone for Educational Resources

On July 1st, 2024, OPEN officially reached the milestone of 10,000 downloads for our educational resources. OPEN’s materials cover a variety of topics from pain management techniques to naloxone facts to safe use supplies. OPEN has been tracking total downloads since 2020, and previously hit the 5,000 download milestone in January of 2023.  Emily McKanna, […]