UMass Chan, Lahey Hospital Regional Medical Campus Plan Moves Forward

BURLINGTON, MA — Efforts to launch a new regional campus for the UMass Chan Medical School at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington progressed this past week when officials with Lahey and UMass Chan together announced a formal agreement to establish the campus.

Nearly four months after the hospitals first publicly discussed plans, the new master affiliation agreement sends the Lahey/UMass Chan proposal to accreditors at the Liaison Committee on Medical Education for review and approval.

UMass on Wednesday said it is expecting a decision from the liaison committee by March of next year. The new medical campus at Lahey would begin accepting roughly 25 students per-year in the summer of 2024, pending approval.

“This partnership brings together two organizations with a shared mission to care for our communities,” Anne Larkin, an associate professor of surgery, vice provost and senior associate dean for educational affairs at UMass Chan said.

“Beginning in the new year, we will engage the UMass Chan and Lahey communities in developing our innovative curriculum around leadership, health system science and interprofessional education as we build this new regional medical school campus,” Larkin continued. “We look forward to sharing more on the next steps in the coming months.”

READ: Lahey Hospital, UMass Chan Medical School Look To Launch New Campus

UMass Chan is Massachusetts’ lone public medical school.

It previously launched a regional campus using a similar model to current Lahey plans at Baystate Health in Springfield in 2015. UMass officials are now looking to build on success in Springfield as they eye plans in Burlington.

With accreditation approval, UMass has said that Lahey faculty would become members of the UMass Chan faculty.

Medical students studying at the new regional campus at Lahey would follow the core curriculum of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan, handling all their clinical experiences on site in Burlington.

Programming at the new UMass Chan-Lahey campus would have a particular focus on leadership, health systems science and inter professional education, UMass officials said.

Lahey has previously affiliated its academic operations with the Tufts University School of Medicine. It is shifting to UMass Chan after embarking on a recent request for proposals process aimed at identifying a new academic partner, according to a statement in August and separate reporting from the Boston Globe.

“The evolving health care landscape requires innovation in how we educate the next generation of healthcare leaders so that we can meet the diverse needs of our communities for years to come,” Lahey Chief Academic Officer Anne Mosenthal said at the time. “UMass Chan Medical School shares our vision for redefining the future of medicine and is an outstanding cultural fit to build on Lahey’s commitment to inter-professional, team-based care that is centered on the patient and reflects a culture of inquiry and innovation.”

The hospitals have said they are also interested in forming a new research collaboration, combining efforts in the study of digital medicine, population health and health care delivery.