Open Enrollment for 2017 benefits is underway
Faculty, and staff and retirees may change their benefits for 2017 during Open Enrollment, Oct. 24 to Nov. 4. There are no major benefit changes for 2017. No action is required to keep current benefits — with one exception. IRS rules do not allow FSA enrollments to continue across calendar years. Faculty and staff will need to re-enroll to participate in an FSA for 2017. Faculty and staff may make benefits changes through Wolverine Access. Retirees may use Wolverine Access or complete and return the form included in their Open Enrollment books. The deadline to submit benefits changes is 5 p.m. Nov. 4. Changes and new rates take effect Jan. 1. For details, visit hr.umich.edu/open-enrollment.
U-M launches effort to prevent surgery-related opioid addiction across Michigan
America’s opioid drug epidemic has struck hard in Michigan. But now, a team from the University of Michigan is striking back at a key factor: opioid prescriptions for patients before and after surgery. With a new $1.4 million per year, five-year grant from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and equal funding from U-M, the team today launches an initiative to help medical teams across the state care for surgical patients’ pain — without setting those patients up for new chronic opioid use, misuse and addiction. Named the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network, or Michigan-OPEN, the effort aims to cut in half both the amount of opioids prescribed to Michigan surgical patients, and the number of patients who still use opioids many months after surgery. For more information, go to umhealth.me/michiganopen.
U-M launches Youth Policy Lab to improve young lives
Researchers at U-M have launched a new lab designed to help state and local agencies, social service providers, nonprofits and educators improve life outcomes for Michigan youth, from birth through age 25. The Youth Policy Lab, a partnership between the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and the Survey Research Center at the Institute of Social Research, is a hands-on initiative to support the growing demand for rigorous evidence about the likely outcomes of proposed policy interventions. It is led by Brian Jacob, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy, and professor of public policy, economics and education; Susan Dynarski, professor of public policy, economics and education; and Robin Tepper Jacob, research associate professor in the School of Education and Survey Research Center. To read the full story, go to record.umich.edu/articles/u-m-launches-youth-policy-lab-improve-young-lives.
$2.5M to launch a new era in natural hazards engineering
Advancing natural hazards engineering and disaster science is the goal of a new $2.5 million project at the College of Engineering. It’s funded by the National Science Foundation. Natural hazards engineers study earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, landslides and other disasters. They work to better understand the causes and effects of these phenomena on cities, homes and infrastructure, and develop strategies to save lives and mitigate damage. The researchers of this newly funded project are creating a computational framework that will define a set of standards for disaster researchers to use when constructing their models, enabling simulation models to work together. Sherif El-Tawil, professor of civil and environmental engineering and principal investigator on the project, is a structural engineer interested in how buildings behave, particularly in disasters. He has developed 3-D models and simulators that show precisely what happens in a building if a particular column or wall is destroyed during an extreme event.
Michigan joins national, $20M research project to improve fibroid treatment
U-M will join nine other clinical centers across the country working to compare the effectiveness of different treatment strategies for women with uterine fibroids. The five-year, $20 million project is funded by The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The effort centers around building a national registry tracking patients, treatments and outcomes. Sites aim to enroll roughly 10,000 women aged 18-54 representing diverse geographic, racial, ethnic and clinical backgrounds who are being treated for uterine fibroids. U-M will focus recruitment for the registry on the greater Ann Arbor community, Flint, and the Detroit suburban area with the goal to recruit 500 to 1,000 women for the study. Uterine fibroids are the most common, benign tumors in women and are the leading indication for hysterectomy in the U.S. While they are asymptomatic in some women, they can sometimes lead to significant pain, bleeding, and fertility problems.
— Compiled by Jill A. Greenberg, The University Record
