Two Massachusetts medical institutions have received approval to establish a new regional medical campus in Burlington.
UMass Chan Medical School and Lahey Hospital and Medical Center signed an agreement to establish the campus at the Burlington hospital in December. The two institutions announced Thursday they have received approval from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body of medical schools in the United States and Canada.
“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 UMass Chan Chancellor Michael F. Collins, who also serves as senior vice president for the health sciences at the state-wide UMass system.
Medical students at the hospital will follow the core curriculum of T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan and will complete their third-year clerkship rotations and most of their fourth-year rotations under Lahey faculty and specialty-specific site directors.
UMass Chan-Lahey will offer a new educational track with a focus on leadership, health systems science and interprofessional education, known as LEAD@Lahey, which stands for “lead, empower, advocate and deliver.”
“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 Lahey President Susan Moffatt-Bruce. “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.”
Anne Mosenthal, Lahey’s chief academic officer, will be the 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,” Mosenthal said. “We are pleased that the new campus has been accredited and look forward to welcoming our first students.”
The new campus will introduce a new research collaboration through the creation of a new institute for healthcare delivery science and a quantitative science research hub.
The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts there will be a shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians in the United States by 2034. Through partnerships and pipeline programs with other UMass Chan sites, the institution hopes to address that shortage and add more diversity to the healthcare workforce.
“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 Flotte, 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.”
UMass Chan’s first regional campus was established in 2015 at Baystate Health in Springfield. At that campus, the Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health, or PURCH, track focuses on healthcare disparities and issues unique to urban and rural communities. The campus accepts classes of 175 medical students per year, about 25 of whom enroll in this track.
The first cohort of approximately 25 students at UMass Chan-Lahey will begin in August 2024.
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