Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | July 28, 2025 | Worcester Business Journal 13 County as a health professional shortage area, meaning the region had 3,500 or more patients for every one provider. A report pub- lished in January by Massachusetts Health Policy Commission found between 2018 and 2022, the share of pri- mary care providers who were physicians dropped from 74% to 69%, and in 2021, only one in seven new physicians in the state entered primary care. Furthermore, 74% of Massachusetts physicians were white in 2022 while 15.9% were Asian/Pacific Islander, 5% were Hispanic, and 1.2% were Black. UMass Chan was named one of the top 15 best graduate medical schools for primary care in the country for 2024 by U.S. News & World Report and the first in the Northeast. It's pivotal the university keeps its commitment to bolstering the primary care workforce, Shei said. "It will be important that the person maintains a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We need our healthcare professionals to reflect the communities that they serve," said Shei. "It's important for patients throughout the region to have access to primary care providers that they trust, that they can access in times of need, otherwise, they may defer care." When patients defer care, they show up to our emergency departments with acute conditions that in turn contrib- ute to long ER wait times and clogged Of note, UMass Chan is home to two Nobel Prize-winning scientists: in 2006, Craig Mello shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference with scientist An- drew Fire of Stanford University School of Medicine in California. In 2024, Victor Ambros shared the same prize with Gary Ruvkun of Massachusetts General Hospital for their co-discovery microRNA. "e faculty is the strength of UMass Medical School," said Meehan. Attracting and retaining this kind of talent is going to be essential for the next chancellor, Meehan said, noting Collins has been directly responsible for pro- curing gis that have established 55 new endowed chairs, bringing the school's total to 82. In 2001, one woman held an en- dowed chair. Now there are 26. "e institution's commitment to di- versity, equity, and inclusion is im- portant especially in this moment in time, and to have such a recognized institution and leader in Central Mas- sachusetts helps elevate the region as a whole and advance regional equity," said Amie Shei, president and CEO of e Health Foundation of Central Massachu- setts, located in Worcester. Prioritizing primary care As the leader of UMass Chan, the school's next chancellor will be in a unique position to not only generate change within the university's walls, but throughout the region's healthcare land- scape, Shei said. "It's a role that has incredible power and influence. It sets the tone for a lot of what happens in Central Massachusetts," she said. One way in which the school's incoming chancellor can drive diverse and equitable change is through UMass Chan's primary care physician training, she said. UMass Chan has been a leader in Central Massachusetts when it comes to training the next generation of primary care providers, an especially important focus now since Massachusetts is facing a primary care shortage, said Dr. Olivia Liao, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society and ophthalmologist at Lexington Eye Associates. "Without a good primary care, the healthcare system really won't be robust," said Liao. A 2024 study from the Texas-based Cicero Institute classified Worcester HIGHER EDUCATION F O C U S W UMass Chan chancellors Dr. Michael Collins is ninth chancellor to serve at UMass Chan and the lon- gest-serving chancellor in the UMass system's history. Years Chancellor Founding dean: 1964-1975 Chancellor: 1974-1975 Dr. Lamar Soutter 1976-1978 Dr. Roger Bulger 1978-1979 (acting) H. Maurice Goodman 1979-1986 Dr. Robert Tranquada 1986-1987 Dr. James Dalen 1987 (acting) Dr. James Barry Hanshaw 1987-1990 Dr. Leonard Laster 1990 (ad interim) 1991-2007 Dr. Aaron Lazare 2007-2008 (ad interim) 2008 - present Dr. Michael Collins Source: UMass Chan Medical School Amie Shei, president and CEO of The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts Dr. Olivia Liao, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society emergency departments, systemic issues impacting the health of entire communi- ties, Shei said. e incoming chancellor must contin- ue to address these issues, she said. In March, UMass Chan formed its Advancing DEI Working Group under the auspices of Marlina Duncan, vice chancellor for diversity and inclusion. e working group's formation was in response to Trump's Feb. 14 threat to potentially cut off federal funding to U.S. colleges that continue with their DEI initiatives. e group is tasked with ensuring all policies, programs, and activities are up to date and compliant with current federal and state law. "As the commonwealth's only public academic health sciences campus, we are committed to our mission to advance the health and wellness of our diverse communities throughout Massachusetts and across the world by leading and innovating in education, research, health care delivery and public service," Collins and Provost and Dean Dr. Terence Flotte wrote in a March 6 memo to the UMass Chan community. Opportunities and challenges UMass Chan's next chancellor will step into a healthcare landscape that is two-fold, said Liao. "[It's] going to be challenging, but at the same time exciting, if you think about what could happen," she said. As healthcare rapidly embraces arti- ficial intelligence, the university's next chancellor will have the opportunity to embrace the tool while making sure its uses and implications are ethical and equitable in order to better patient care, diagnoses, and therapeutics, while de- creasing administrative tasks, Liao said. "We really can be at the forefront in this state to help shape AI, to help reduce burnout, so that we can actually build back workforce. Ultimately, the goal is to build that workforce," she said. Just as urgently, she foresees one of the incoming chancellor's greatest chal- lenges will be navigating fiscal concerns on a federal level. "We also need someone that is a strong advocate in these very challeng- ing times. We need someone that is an advocate at the local, state, and federal level, advocating for funding for these critical medical programs," said Shei. With UMass Chan at risk of a $30-million shortfall this year from proposed cuts to NIH funding, it's no small task. e next chancellor "needs to be someone who can be a trusted partner and bring stability during this challeng- ing time," said Shei. UMass will deploy a national, possi- bly international, search to find Collins' successor and bring the best person to Worcester, said Meehan. Embedding the university's new chancellor into the Central Massachusetts community will be imperative to their ability to meet the needs of its community as Collins has. "You can't pick a chancellor of any institution, let alone a world class medical school, without getting input from the people who have built this medical school into what it is today," said Meehan. While Dr. Michael Collins will step down from his role as chancellor next year, he is not going into retirement. Instead, he will stay on with UMass Chan as a professor and university advocate. PHOTO | WBJ FILE

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