UMass Chan Medical School and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center (Lahey), part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, have received approval from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education to establish a new regional medical school campus in Burlington.
“The new regional campus will build on UMass Chan and Lahey’s shared vision to educate future generations of physicians grounded in evidence-based, patient-centered, multispecialty and interprofessional practice, and to meet the diverse needs of our communities,” said Michael F. Collins, chancellor of UMass Chan and senior vice president for the health sciences for the University of Massachusetts.
“Lahey Hospital & Medical Center has a long history as a teaching hospital and is committed to training the next generation of leaders alongside our world-class experts,” said Susan Moffatt-Bruce, MD, PhD, president of Lahey Hospital & Medical Center. “The UMass Chan-Lahey campus will help further our mission of delivering extraordinary care for the patients we serve by focusing on training leaders who are ready to address and advance solutions for the future challenges in health care.”
The UMass Chan-Lahey regional medical school campus will emphasize leadership, health systems science and interprofessional education, preparing students to lead and create solutions to future challenges in health care. The new track will be called LEAD@Lahey, which stands for lead, empower, advocate and deliver. The first cohort of medical students participating in the program will begin in August 2024.
The new regional medical campus will build on the success of UMass Chan’s first regional campus at Baystate Health established in Springfield in 2015, which is home to the Medical School’s Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health (PURCH) track. PURCH follows the core curriculum of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan with a focus on population health, health care disparities and health issues that are specific to urban and rural communities.
“The Medical School’s partnership with Lahey will offer future physicians the opportunity to explore their professional passions and train in a hospital system with talented, dedicated faculty,” said Terence R. Flotte, MD, provost of UMass Chan and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine. “I am enthusiastic that UMass Chan’s second regional campus has been approved by the LCME.”
Dean Flotte has appointed Anne Mosenthal, MD, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center’s chief academic officer, to be the inaugural regional executive dean of UMass Chan-Lahey.
“I am honored to serve as the first dean of UMass Chan-Lahey, where our students will benefit from learning in the unique Lahey environment of collaborative, relationship-centered care,” said Dr. Mosenthal. “We are pleased that the new campus has been accredited and look forward to welcoming our first students.”
“Students who train at the UMass Chan-Lahey regional campus will have an added focus on health system science, team training, leadership and communication skills,” said Anne C. Larkin, MD, associate professor of surgery and vice provost and senior associate dean for educational affairs at UMass Chan.
In the new program, medical students learning and training at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center will follow the core curriculum of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan and complete their third-year clerkship rotations and most of their fourth-year rotations under the supervision of Lahey faculty and specialty-specific clerkship site directors. With a focus on addressing the health care needs of communities in Massachusetts, the partnership will also enhance diversity in the health profession workforce through innovative partnerships and pipeline programs with other UMass Chan sites.
The UMass Chan-Lahey regional campus will also include a new research collaboration with the creation of a new institute for health care delivery science and quantitative science research hub, with the goal of fostering innovation in digital medicine, population health and health care delivery.
The new partnership will advance patient-oriented and health care research and medical education priorities critical to the long-term health needs of the commonwealth, including addressing the shortage of primary care and specialty care physicians, which the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts to be between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians nationwide by 2034. The program will also expand access for students seeking an affordable, high-quality medical education and apply evidence-based care and proven academic research to reduce health disparities and improve health care delivery.
UMass Chan is perennially ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the best medical schools in the nation for primary care education and attracts more than $300 million in biomedical research funding annually. Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, is a national leader in pioneering treatment, innovative technology and leading-edge research, and offers a comprehensive array of medical and surgical specialties and services to provide patients with access to a full continuum of medical care.
Listen to the Voices of UMass Chan podcast to learn more about the new UMass Chan-Lahey regional campus.
