News

OPEN’s Educational Materials Hit 5,000 Downloads since 2020

In January 2023, OPEN hit a substantial milestone for downloads of our educational materials. OPEN has officially reached 5,000 downloads since 2020. Our educational materials are an important resource we provide to both patients and providers. “With these materials, everyone has the opportunity to learn about pain management. We’re their biggest advocate, so we are […]

OPEN Publishes New Pediatrics Prescribing Recommendations

OPEN has released a new set of Pediatric Prescribing Recommendations based on three years of data collection and analysis of prescribing patterns and patient reported outcomes. These recommendations add nearly 40 new procedures to our extensive list centered around pediatric surgeries. Work on this new set of recommendations began after Dr. Karen Cooper moved to […]

Three Years of Research Culminating in Best Practice Recommendations for Pediatric Surgery

Dr. Karen Cooper started her residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (also known as Ear, Nose and Throat or ENT) 25 years ago, and one of the first surgeries she learned to perform was a tonsillectomy. When she began her career, the common practice was to prescribe large amounts of an opioid to manage the […]

Celebrating the Successful Fall 2022 Take Back Event

Take Back Events are organized twice a year by the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) where community members can turn in unused medications they still have in their households. While these Take Back Events predate OPEN, the OPEN team saw these events as a great way to partner with community leaders and raise awareness to the […]

Read Our Fall 2022 Newsletter

Our Fall newsletter is here! Featuring Painless: The Opioid Musical, research presented at APHA, community engagement/achievement and more. Read our Fall 2022 newsletter here. Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Painless: The Opioid Musical Featured on the Today Show

On November 25, Painless: The Opioid Musical was featured on the Today Show, recognizing the importance of this musical and the impact it has already made on our community. The feature showed viewers highlights from its first high school performance and responses from high school students who watched it live. Painless started as an idea […]

OPEN Cited in new CDC Prescribing Guidelines

In the CDC’s November 4th publication of the 2022 Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain, OPEN was cited throughout the article. The CDC referenced OPEN’s recommendations for the number of opioid pills to consider prescribing for patients undergoing surgical procedures, the use of non-opioid medications for acute pain, and prescribing recommendations after dental […]

OPEN Team Presents Pediatric Research at the 2022 APHA Conference

OPEN team members Heidi Aslesen and Zahra Dawson attended the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting in Boston from November 6th through November 9th to present research on the intersection of pediatric opioid prescribing, BMI and the impact on children. The APHA Annual Meeting is a yearly public health conference that celebrates the vast […]

Painless: The Opioid Musical Now Available for Streaming

Painless: The Opioid Musical is officially available for streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music! The OPEN team is excited for this impactful project to be available to share with a widespread audience. Bravo and congratulations to every person involved in creating these stories and getting them ready to share with the public! Listen […]

Read our Summer 2022 Newsletter

Our summer newsletter is here! Featuring our Fall Take Back Event, new disposal boxes, new resources and more. Read our summer 2022 newsletter here. Subscribe to our newsletter here.

New Resource: Pediatric Toolkit Available

We are excited to announce a new resource: Our Pediatric Surgical Pain Management Toolkit! This toolkit focuses on prevention of opioid-related complications in children and adolescents by intervening at the point many are first introduced to them: when acute pain is treated after surgery. Providers and parents can find best practices, free educational materials, and […]

3,300 Naloxone Rescue Kits Distributed

From March 2020 – May 2022, our partnership with MEDIC has distributed 3,300 naloxone rescue kits to patients in 22 emergency departments across the state of Michigan. The ‘Rescue Kits’ include gloves, a CPR face-shield, a naloxone education brochure, a county-specific pharmacy information card, and two doses of Narcan. The Naloxone Rescue Kits are distributed […]