Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/769833
8 Worcester Business Journal | January 9, 2017 | wbjournal.com Urban health care UMass Medical School is expanding its reach by providing opportunities for graduates to work in underserved areas Presenting Bay State Savings Bank J. H. Lynch & Sons, Inc. The Protector Group Charitable Foundation, Inc. Saint Francis Community Healthcare, Inc. Contributing J. J. Bafaro, Inc. TD Bank Cornerstone Camosse Masonry Supply Consigli Construction Co., Inc. Fallon Health Grantham Group The Grenon Family Foundation Patron Chacharone Properties Dauphinais Concrete, Inc. The Hanover Insurance Group Foundation, Inc. Metso Automation USA, Inc. Polar Beverages UniBank - Whitinsville Partner Clinton Savings Bank E.L. Harvey & Sons, Inc. The Granite Group Grimes & Company, Inc. Leominster Credit Union Machado Consulting The Monahan Group & The First Friday Club O'Connor, Maloney & Company, P.C. Pagano Media Reliant Medical Group Spencer Savings Bank Spirinet Technology St. Johns High School Sullivan, Garrity & Donnelly Sullivan Insurance Group, Inc. Wickstrom Morse, LLP Thomas J. Woods Insurance Agency, Inc. Friends Commonwealth Electrical Technologies, Inc. Francis P. Shea Insurance Agency, Inc. Griffin and Company, PC Hassett & Donnelly, PC Industrial Cleaning Products Media Sponsors Charter TV3 Worcester Business Journal Worcester Magazine In-Kind Donors Broadway Restaurant Duva Distributors LAZ Parking Maines Paper & Food Service Table Talk Pies, Inc. BY LAURA FINALDI Worcester Business Journal Staff Writer W hen the University of Massachusetts Medical School was chartered in the 1960s, Worcester, Boston, and Springfield all lobbied to bring the school within their respective city limits. Worcester eventually won the bid, but now, more than 50 years later, the medical school is making its way to Springfield. The state's Worcester-based public medical school late last year celebrated the launch of its first ever regional cam- pus, in a partnership with Baystate Health and UMass Amherst. Starting this year, UMass Medical School will admit 25 students into its new popula- tion-based urban and rural community health (PURCH) track, which empha- sizes urban and rural medicine and population health management. The idea is to teach students how to work to manage the overall health of underserved communities, and to hopefully fuel the pipeline of doctors going to work out west, where there is a need for well-trained primary care phy- sicians and specialists, according to the medical school. "What we're hoping is the students will come as first-year students and learn the clinical aspects of medicine here, so maybe they'll want to train here, and if they want to train here, they'll practice here," said UMass Medical School Chancellor Michael Collins. UMass Medical's first physical expan- sion comes shortly after it widened its student base to make room for out-of- state students and about a year and a half after an academic affiliation with Cape Cod Healthcare was announced. This all just part of Collins' larger plan to make UMass Medical School "the Stanford of the Northeast," as he put it, and to grow the number of qualified doctors in Massachusetts. Currently, 62 percent of UMass Medical School grad- uates go on to practice in-state. "We'll be training a cohort of stu- dents with consistent clinical experi- ences to manage a population of patients throughout their clinical train- ing," said Collins. Changing healthcare landscape Today's dynamic healthcare environ- ment places a strong emphasis on improving the overall health of a popu- lation – on value rather than on vol-