Overview / Mission

Building a Culture of Health

MHealthy was established by President Coleman in 2005 to encourage a culture of health at the University of Michigan. The program aims to:

• Promote the health and well-being of the University of Michigan community
• Develop more cost-effective delivery of health care as a model for other institutions
• Advance public discussion and social commitment to change by harnessing the intellectual capacity of the University to develop, test and study efforts to improve the wellness of our employees, dependents, and retirees.

MHealthy offers an opportunity for the University to positively impact the lives of many individuals and families and to contribute to addressing our nation’s growing health care crisis by leveraging the tremendous resources and expertise at the University that can be brought together to focus on these issues. These resources include:

• A large health care system with hospitals, clinics and health care providers
• Numerous health science schools and colleges
• Health policy experts
• Economic and social research scientists

MHealthy integrates these resources to provide a broad, collaborative program designed to demonstrate that it is feasible to promote healthy living, contain health care expenditures, and define optimal insurance coverage for individuals and families.

MHealthy’s goals are to:

• Improve health and quality of life for the U-M community
• Educate, motivate and empower individuals to make good health care decisions and practice healthy behaviors
• Promote wellness, illness and injury prevention and disease management
• Coordinate and streamline programs and services to improve effectiveness, efficiency and communication
• Contribute to managing health care costs and optimizing health outcomes
• Measure and monitor progress
• Achieve high-level customer satisfaction
• Disseminate findings to enable replication

In November 2006, MHealthy became an ongoing program of the University with an administrative home in University Human Resources. In February 2007, a Steering Committee, codirected by Dr. Robert Winfield, Chief Health Officer, and LaVaughn Palma-Davis, Senior Director of University Health and Well-Being Services, was created with the specific task of developing a five-year strategic plan for MHealthy for 2009-2013.

MHealthy Strategic Plan

Beginning in 2009, MHealthy programs will be guided by a five-year plan that represents the University’s continuing commitment to health and wellness. The community’s embrace of programs that help maintain good health has been enduring, and now we will take a longer range view for developing programs that matter most to faculty and staff and stand to make the greatest difference in improving health and satisfaction. Over the next five years, we will increasingly integrate health and wellness efforts with benefit programs to give even greater support for prevention. With your continued support, MHealthy can help reduce future illness and disease in our community with a simple philosophy — help low-risk individuals stay healthy, and provide those with higher risk factors with the information they need to reduce their chances of chronic illness or serious medical conditions in the future.

View the MHealthy Five-Year Strategic Plan Executive Summary (pdf).

MHealthy Advisory Committee

The MHealthy Advisory Committee draws on the rich resources of the University to help address the national challenge in health care by developing innovative long-range solutions to improving health at the University and beyond. The committee works to advance public discussion and encourage social commitment to change by conceiving of health as a community process within the special context of the University workplace. Composed of representatives from each campus and the Health System, the committee invites community contributions to these deliberations with particular focus on how the University can integrate the promotion of healthy living with the provision of health care coverage and service delivery. For more information, click here.

MHealthy’s Future Success

The systems, culture and behavior changes that MHealthy hopes to accomplish will take years to achieve optimal results. An initiative that involves change at the individual, organizational and community levels is complex and requires the support of all segments and members of our community. Over time, we aspire to contribute to our organization’s culture of health by positively impacting:

• Health and quality of life
• Work culture and employee satisfaction
• Retention and recruitment
• Injury rates
• Absenteeism and replacement costs
• Health care costs
• Disability costs
• Productivity

Contact Information

For more information about MHealthy, contact us at MHealthy@umich.edu.