ANN ARBOR, Mich. – More than 1,000 people may have had their health information exposed after research study staff at Michigan Medicine mailed postcards without envelopes.
On June 27, 2025, Michigan Medicine mailed postcards to about 1,015 people to recruit them for a research study, according to a release.
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These postcards included protected health information, which could have been exposed to anyone who came in contact with them, because they were sent without envelopes.
Once Michigan Medicine was made aware of this, the research study recruiters stopped sending out postcards to possible participants, and an investigation was launched.
“We take patient privacy very seriously, and we regret this incident. Whenever situations like this occur, we immediately take steps to investigate,” said Jeanne Strickland, Michigan Medicine Chief Compliance Officer.
The investigation revealed that "University of Michigan’s Institutional Review Board (IRB), a panel of staff that is responsible for human subjects research oversight, mistakenly approved the use of this postcard," according to the release.
The IRB is working to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again, including providing education on protecting patients’ health data.
Notices were mailed to those affected starting on Aug. 14, 2025.
Anyone who has concerns about the breach can call the toll-free Michigan Medicine Assistance Line: 1-833-353-4105 Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. ET.
In addition, the health system said it believes the risk of identity theft is low, but has advised the affected patients to monitor their medical insurance transactions for fraud.