UMass Chan Medical School, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center Celebrate Opening of UMass Chan-Lahey Regional Medical School Campus

Partnership Called a ‘Transformative Educational Initiative’ That Will Advance Health Care for Future Generations

Burlington, MA – Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) and UMass Chan Medical School joined with state and local officials, faculty, students and the community on Sept. 4 to formally celebrate the opening of the UMass Chan-Lahey regional medical school campus at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington.

The new partnership between Lahey Hospital & Medical Center and UMass Chan to create the first UMass Chan regional medical school campus north of Boston represents “a transformative educational initiative” to shape health care for future generations, said leaders of BILH and the medical school.

The inaugural cohort of 32 first-year medical students enrolled at UMass Chan-Lahey began classes in August built around an innovative learning track called LEAD@Lahey, which stands for lead, empower, advocate and deliver. The track follows the core curriculum of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine in Worcester, with an added emphasis on leadership, health systems science and interprofessional experience, aimed at preparing students to lead and solve future challenges in health care.

“This new collaboration is an amazing example of thinking boldly about training that next generation of caregivers for a future in health care that will be really different than what we see today,” said Kevin Tabb, MD, president and CEO of Beth Israel Lahey Health. “It’s exciting for our institution to be at the center of that change. As an academic health system, we consider it our responsibility to be at the center of advancing innovative educational programs, and the UMass Chan-Lahey regional medical school campus does just that.”

“The fact that we have this partnership with Beth Israel Lahey Health and are now establishing our second regional campus here in Burlington reinforces that social responsibility that UMass Chan Medical School has adopted to be the medical school for the entire commonwealth,” said Michael F. Collins, MD, chancellor of UMass Chan Medical School. “In every way, we are advancing medical education together, we are going to advance UMass Chan-Lahey together and we are going to advance the careers of these learners together, and that’s really a pretty spectacular responsibility for those of us who have the great opportunity to steward these young folks’ education.”

LEAD@Lahey embodies Lahey’s long legacy of collaborative, relationship-centered, and team-based patient care that has been at the forefront of its mission for over 100 years. As one of the few physician-led hospitals in the country, Lahey provides a premier environment to study the art and science of medicine and spur innovation in the delivery of health care.

“Dr. Lahey’s vision 101 years ago was to serve the community. Were he here today, I know he’d be pleased,” said Susan Moffatt-Bruce, MD, PhD, president of Lahey Hospital & Medical Center. “We are very grateful to be uplifted by this class and by this work because it is really going to be our sustainable future that we nurture and develop here and that we want to invest in. … I have challenged the medical students that they, with their great vision, passion and energy, will take us forward for the next century.”

State and local officials also applauded the leaders of UMass Chan and Lahey Hospital & Medical Center for collaborating to advance the delivery of health care in Massachusetts and beyond.

“Lead@Lahey represents the kind of future we hope for in health care – a future where equity, inclusion and innovation are not just priorities, but guiding principles,” Massachusetts Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, MD, PhD, said at the event. “This campus will be an engaging place where students, faculty and researchers can explore new ideas, challenge the status quo and discover how they can contribute to a more just and inclusive world.”

State Sen. Cindy Friedman, representing the Fourth Middlesex District, told the inaugural cohort of UMass Chan-Lahey students in attendance that they are tasked with becoming the leaders who will bring a return to the fundamentals of health care.

“This program is so important because it’s about all of the things that we need to do to be true to our words and our values in the commonwealth, that we really are here to take care of the people in our communities,” said Sen. Friedman, who serves as Senate chairperson of the Health Care Finance Committee and vice chairperson of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “This means a commitment to access and equity across the board, it means improving cultural competence and it means dealing with a system that is often more about profit and less about health care. I am really grateful to UMass Chan, Beth Israel Lahey Health and all of the people that put this program together to grow the next generation of health care leaders.”

UMass Chan-Lahey is the second regional campus for the medical school. The Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health, or PURCH, track at UMass Chan-Baystate in Springfield was established in 2017. UMass Chan welcomed its largest class of first-year medical students in August, totaling 235 students, including the 32 Lead@Lahey students.

“Every seat that we open up in medical school represents an opportunity to train more of the heath care workforce for Massachusetts,” said Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine. “We have sought out and identified amazing teaching health system partners, the most recent of which and most natural of which I would say has been Beth Israel Lahey Health around this UMass Chan-Lahey campus. It has been a tremendously spontaneous, wonderful, joyful experience.”