What’s in a name? Introducing Michigan Medicine

Forward-looking. Impactful. Notable.

Even more than those things, our organization’s new handle is intended to better reflect the three-part mission of our integrated academic medical center.

As of today, we are collectively known to the world as Michigan Medicine. Whether you work with patients, teach the leaders of tomorrow or search for the next health care breakthroughs, Michigan Medicine represents your vitally important work under a unified leadership structure.

What will this change mean for employees? The following information should help answer any initial Michigan Medicine questions you may have:

Websites

The Michigan Medicine website — the corporate site for our academic medical center formerly located at med.umich.edu — can now be found at www.michiganmedicine.org. This page has an eye-catching new design. Users who navigate to the old site will be automatically redirected.

Some upcoming changes to other websites to align with our name include:

Employee publication: We want your help when it comes to renaming the Health System Headlines employee publication. Stay tuned later this week as we’ll be polling employees across the organization to help find a name better aligned with Michigan Medicine.

Internal Homepage: The Internal Homepage is getting a makeover! This includes a refreshed look and new name. Be on the lookout as more information is made available in a future issue of the employee publication.

Department/unit websites: Department/unit websites will remain the same, with the exception of replacing logos and language that refers to UMHS or the health system. Click here for more information regarding brand standards at Michigan Medicine.

What you should do: Look through your favorites and update applicable bookmarks.

Email

The organization’s email domain name (@med.umich.edu) will remain the same. Email signature blocks, however, should be updated to reflect the new logo.

What you should do: Take a few minutes to update your email signature block if needed. If you receive an email from a colleague who hasn’t updated his or her signature, send them a gentle reminder to do so.

Business cards and other materials

Organizational leaders, while excited about the change, are pragmatic about its implementation. Because of the magnitude of this change, there will be a natural, phase-in approach focusing first on consumer-facing needs, followed by internal, employee-facing changes. In an effort to be financially and environmentally responsible, we suggest a “waste-not-want-not” approach for existing materials, including business cards and stationery, etc.

What you should do: Don’t go cleaning out the closets in your department just yet. In most cases, departments are advised to continue using existing supplies until they are depleted. There’s no need to order new stationery and business cards until you are out of them.

New logo

The new logo should look pretty familiar, but there are some subtle differences. Brand standards and identity guidelines can be found on the DIY page on the Department of Communication website.

Please be advised that stretching, skewing, cropping or otherwise tweaking the Michigan Medicine logo is not permitted and the existing UMHS logo can no longer be used.

What you should do: Be on the logo “lookout.” If you spot a dated logo, point it out. Don’t just look in the physical world, look in your digital world as well. That digital letterhead or fax form (remember faxes?) with the old logo should be updated with the new one. PowerPoint presentations and other things you have on your computer should also be updated. If you need the new logo, you can find it on the Department of Communication website.

New name

As with the logo, there are also presentation standards when it comes to putting the organization’s new name in writing. Be sure to review the new identity standards on the DIY section of the Department of Communication website for complete details and guidelines on the use of names and logos.

What you should do: Avoid abbreviations and use our new name, Michigan Medicine.

For more information, including Frequently Asked Questions, please click here or contact identity-questions@med.umich.edu.