LEAD@Lahey track

The innovative LEAD@Lahey (LEAD = lead, empower, advocate, deliver) track is hosted at our new regional medical school campus, in partnership with Lahey Hospital & Medical Center (Lahey), a part of Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH), in Burlington, Massachusetts. Students on this track follow the core curriculum of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine at UMass Chan Medical School with an added focus on leadership, health systems science and interprofessional education.

Our mission is to develop the next generation of purpose-driven physician leaders who seek to make a difference in the health and well-being of our communities through leadership, empowerment, advocacy and transforming the delivery of health care.

The LEAD@Lahey track for students enrolled in the T.H. Chan School of Medicine embodies Lahey’s long legacy of collaborative, relationship-centered and team-based approach to caring for patients. As one of the few physician-led hospitals in the country, it provides the ideal environment for students to study the art and science of medicine while developing their own values-based leadership. Guided by faculty mentor/coaches, in an inclusive and rigorous fashion, students begin by exploring their purpose, leadership style and strengths, and effective team dynamics. Over the four years students apply their leadership skills to real-world challenges in health care, culminating in the completion of an action project.

The UMass Chan-Lahey regional medical school campus builds on the success of UMass Chan’s first regional campus at Baystate Health in Springfield, which was established in 2015 and is home to the Medical School’s Population-based Urban and Rural Community Health (PURCH) track.

LEAD@Lahey

The LEAD@Lahey track is purposefully designed around the following four critical domains associated with values-driven leadership.

• Leader of Self (Lead)- Discovering who they are as values-driven leaders. Through personal assessment tools and practical application, students engage in a journey of discovering their leadership style, values and strengths as leaders.
• Leader of Others (Lead, Empower)- Developing and empowering others and teams. Students gain the knowledge and skills through hands-on application and personal reflection to effectively empower and develop others to thrive and achieve in a health care setting.
• Leader of Communities (Advocate)- Becoming a socially responsible leader to serve the local and global health communities. Students engage in an exploration of the social and ethical philosophies related to the role of leadership in addressing the challenges facing health care. Through this exploration, they begin to relate these theoretical perspectives to their own personal leadership purpose and values and the role they play in promoting a vision that enhances diversity, equity and inclusion throughout the communities we serve.
• Leader of Systems (Deliver)- Transforming systems and organizations to deliver better health care. Students develop an understanding of how their leadership promotes the strategies and environment for effective change and transformation within a team, department and institution to positively impact the lives of the people we serve.

LEAD@Lahey’s impact

At UMass Chan-Lahey, students are connected to community and business leaders and Lahey/BILH health care executives who are addressing issues of access, equity and social determinants of health in the diverse communities of northeastern Massachusetts. As members of the team, students apply a data driven and change management approach to developing real world solutions that improve health for underserved communities, thereby understanding the role of physicians as advocates for their patients. Our medical school will be their partner during the training and support students development as they become a member of the next generation of health care leaders.  

Whatever medical specialty students wish to pursue, LEAD@Lahey’s foundational tenets of Lahey’s interdisciplinary, patient-centered model combined with the educational expertise of UMass Chan provide a strong foundation using an interprofessional, team-based care delivery model that is centered on the patient and reflects a culture of inquiry and innovation to propel their career well into the future.

How LEAD@Lahey works

The LEAD@Lahey track leverages Lahey’s long tradition of a collaborative, relationship-centered, and team-based approach to caring for patients. It provides the ideal environment for students to develop their skills as a physicians and health care leaders.

Students at UMass Chan-Lahey are members of Walden House, an exceptionally close learning community that fosters camaraderie among classmates and peer mentors, faculty and educators. Early interactions with patients and families in their communities are a major focus in the first weeks of medical school.

Faculty mentor/coaches guide students—in an inclusive and rigorous fashion—as they begin exploring their purpose, leadership style and strengths, and effective team dynamics.

Students work in a range of settings  

Students in the LEAD@Lahey track experience exceptional training in a range of settings:

• Core clerkships are completed at Lahey in Burlington and across the extensive Beth Israel Lahey Health primary care, behavioral health and community hospital network across northeastern Massachusetts.
• Lahey faculty and specialty-specific clerkship site directors supervise core clinical rotations and the majority of fourth-year rotations.
• Students undertake clerkships within a framework of health systems science, seeing patients as individuals and how their care is delivered with a systems-based approach of the multispecialty Lahey hospital.
• Through a leadership lens to continuously improve care, students have opportunities to perform real-world community-based research in quality and patient safety, and comparative effectiveness under the guidance of Lahey and UMass Chan faculty.
• In the fourth year, students delve more deeply into the application of leadership and health systems science through intensive experiential rotations with both Lahey and community-based executives in greater Boston.
• UMass Chan-Lahey students apply their leadership skills to real-world challenges in health care, culminating in completion of an action project. By graduation, students will have developed the skills to lead teams and organizations to help make change in society and health care into the future.
  
  

LEAD@Lahey is located on the UMass Chan-Lahey regional medical school campus in Burlington.  

During the first 18 months of training, students spend most Wednesdays at Lahey and in its surrounding community in northeastern Massachusetts, participating in Early Clinical Learning. Lahey is part of Beth Israel Lahey Health, a health care system that brings together academic medical centers and teaching hospitals, community and specialty hospitals, and more than 4,000 physicians and 35,000 employees in a shared mission to expand access to great care and advance the science and practice of medicine through groundbreaking research and education.

Travel and housing

Please be aware that students are required to commute to their regional campus in the Discovery Phase of the curriculum at least weekly, as well as attend their Exploration Phase at the regional campus. The Exploration Phase starts in mid-March of the MS2 year. Students are responsible for their own housing for clerkships. Where students choose to live is their choice. Several options other students have used are:

1. Live in the Worcester area for all of MS1 year, then move in March of MS2 year – This would require a short lease* in MS2 year.

*Options in Worcester for short leases can be found here: Rental Listings - 196 Rentals | Zillow

2. Move to the regional campus at the start of MS2 year and commute to Worcester for required sessions between August and March.

3. Live in the Worcester area for two years and commute to the regional campus for the start of Exploration Phase.

4. Live in neither the Worcester area or regional campus area, but somewhere in between.

Please send an email to LEADLahey-admissions@umassmed.edu with program or admissions related questions.

How to apply