A momentous half century

By Ellie Castano and Mark L. Shelton

On Sunday, June 4, UMass Chan Medical School will celebrate its 50th Commencement. Since the first 16 medical students graduated in 1974, the school has grown in ways that no one could have imagined. Marked by many moments of significance, the institution has become a top ranked medical school and a research powerhouse. In this issue of the magazine, we have captured a handful of those moments—some that quietly foretold the future and others that clearly were defining developments in the moment— that illuminate the impact UMass Chan has had on research, education, public service and health care delivery.

Nobel discovery transforms science

Craig C. Mello, PhD, who joined the Medical School in the Program in Molecular Medicine in 1994, studies gene expression in the nematode C. elegans. A puzzling result in a batch of experiments led to hours of late-night phone conversations with research colleague Andrew Fire, PhD, of the Carnegie Institution, where they figured out an explanation for a method of regulating genetic expression that was as simple as it was elegant. “RNA interference,” as they described it in their seminal 1998 paper in Nature, using double-stranded RNA, meant that any gene could be silenced with a technique that was fast, versatile and reliable. RNAi gave scientists, in essence, a search engine for discovering the roles of specific genes. This discovery led to Drs. Mello and Fire receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2006. Since that discovery, the field of RNA biology has been one of the most dynamic and impactful areas of research in the world.

Top of U.S. News & World Report

UMass Chan Medical School first appeared in U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of best medical schools for primary care education in 1996, premiering in the No. 2 spot. Since that time, UMass Chan has consistently ranked in the top 10 percent of medical schools for primary care education. In a typical class, more than 50 percent of graduates opt to go into primary care or a primary care specialty, reflecting the institution’s ongoing commitment to fulfilling its core mission of educating primary care physicians. UMass Chan's rankings as a research institution have also risen steadily.

Meeting the COVID-19 challenge

Even before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020, researchers and clinicians at UMass Chan had begun studying SARS-CoV-2, with basic science labs quickly pivoting their research to focus on understanding the rapidly spreading virus. Soon after, clinicians launched clinical trials to test treatments and analyze disease behavior, while students joined the response by graduating early to be on the frontlines of a beleaguered health care workforce and others launched innovative and meaningful volunteer endeavors. Led by ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School, a Vaccine Corps was organized, deploying volunteers across the commonwealth who delivered more than 83,000 doses of vaccine into arms in 2021.

Screening for a healthy future

The New England Newborn Screening program was launched in 1962 by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, screening for just one disease, phenylketonuria. Today in Massachusetts, newborn screening includes more than 30 treatable disorders and has been adopted worldwide as a critical standard of care. UMass Chan Medical School, on behalf of the Department of Public Health, has operated the program since 1997. The lab performs metabolic and genetic screening for nearly every one of the approximately 75,000 babies born in Massachusetts annually.

Class size grows to support mission

UMass Chan’s first School of Medicine class comprised only 16 students. As the school grew in scope, size and renown, class size was 100 students for many years and admission was restricted to Massachusetts residents. That began to change in 1988, when the MD/PhD program was established and accepted out of state students. In 2008 the School of Medicine class size grew in an effort to help alleviate the physician shortage, both in the commonwealth and the country. The class that entered the T.H. Chan School of Medicine in 2022 includes 175 students and the entering class in 2023 is anticipated to include 200 students.

Consulting for health

A modest interagency contract to provide psychiatric services at Worcester State Hospital in the 1980s grew, year by year, into a comprehensive service delivery and health care consulting program that built on the Medical School’s commitment to public service. Formally organized in 1999 as Commonwealth Medicine, a division of the Medical School, this distinguishing resource has helped Massachusetts lead the nation in cost-effective public health financing and redirect billions of dollars to health care delivery. This year, Commonwealth Medicine transitioned to a new brand identity, ForHealth Consulting at UMass Chan Medical School, a name that aligns with its foundational commitment to improving the delivery of health care services.

Mindfulness comes to medicine

The establishment of the mindfulness-based Stress Reduction and Relaxation Clinic in 1979 was an unconventional and forward-thinking decision to embed mindfulness in medicine, initially as a means of improving outcomes for cardiac rehab patients through behavioral health. The program, led by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, a molecular biologist by training, evolved into the singularly successful and paradigm-changing Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society. Dr. Kabat-Zinn is now widely credited with founding the current mindfulness movement. Since those early days, mindfulness has become a regular topic of scholarly research and a universally accepted tool for improving health and well-being.

PhD program launches, thrives

The Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences traces its origin to the establishment of the Doctoral Program in Medical Sciences, a free-standing PhD-granting program approved by the UMass Board of Trustees in 1978. The original class of seven enrolled in 1979. Nine years later, with growing enrollment and applications and fueled by growth in research activity across the campus, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was founded. By 2010, there were 10 programs of study, with more than 400 students enrolled. As of 2022, the school had 1,244 alumni.

Profound impact for endowed chairs

The first philanthropically endowed chair— the Harry M. Haidak Professorship in Surgery was established in 1985 and was originally held by founding chair of surgery H. Brownell Wheeler, MD. Endowed chairs are among the most impactful assets an institution has to attract and retain high caliber faculty and provide an opportunity for donors to contribute to the enrichment and vitality of the academic and scientific environment. Today, 63 faculty members, including the deans of the three schools, hold endowed positions, 21 of whom are women.

Diversity survey fuels change

The Diversity Engagement Survey was developed in 2011 by UMass Chan Medical School in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges to measure academic medical center diversity engagement and inclusion. The survey is designed to gauge the progress of academic medical centers toward the goal of achieving a diverse community of faculty, staff and students. The survey has driven significant change at UMass Chan. Current faculty members Sharina Person, PhD, and Jeroan Allison, MD, MSci, were instrumental in developing the survey, which has been administered by UMass Chan 86 times, including at 65 academic medical centers/ schools. To date, 150,000 individuals have responded to the survey.

Graduate nursing school serves region

Originally launched as a master’s program in 1983, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing was established in 1986 as a means for increasing the number of advanced practice nurses to support patient care in the region as the nursing profession evolved to require advanced technological and acute care skills. Since its establishment, the school has evolved along with the profession to include programs that prepare nurses for leadership in health care, nursing education and scholarship. To date, there are 1,417 alumni and the school consistently ranks in the top 50 percent of nursing schools with DNP programs.

Strong leadership begins with Lamar Soutter

When the UMass Board of Trustees chose Lamar Soutter, MD, as the founding dean of the Medical School, they did so because he had a reputation for facing challenges with dogged determination. Before coming to Worcester, Dr. Soutter had established the first blood bank in Massachusetts; led a gliderborne medical corps during the Battle of the Bulge in WWII; and during his tenure as dean at Boston University School of Medicine, recognized that the relentless trend toward specialization needed a counterpoint in the training and support of generalist physicians, making him an early champion of primary care education. Soutter, who was appointed chancellor in 1974, embodied the characteristics needed to build a medical school from the ground up. His leadership set the standard for the chancellors who followed in his footsteps, including current Chancellor Michael F. Collins, who has led the institution since 2007.

A model of collaboration

The establishment of the Program in Molecular Medicine in 1990 represented a shift in how the institution approached research—bringing together scientists whose work intersected at the molecular level, rather than by discipline—and created an enduring commitment to multidisciplinary collaboration that is now a hallmark of UMass Chan. The success of this approach, which has been extended across the enterprise, has led to scientific breakthroughs that have fundamentally changed how biomedical research is conducted.

Worcester Pipeline illuminates science pathway

The Worcester Pipeline Collaborative, the premier UMass Chan educational partnership with Worcester Public Schools and area colleges and universities, was established in 1996 to encourage underrepresented, economically and/or educationally disadvantaged students to pursue careers in biomedical research, biotechnology and health care professions. Founded initially with a grant to principal investigators Deborah Harmon Hines, PhD, and James E. Hamos, PhD, the program built educational partnerships with Worcester Public Schools. More than 150,000 students in the Worcester Public School’s North Quadrant have been exposed to or participated in numerous outreach program opportunities through structured activities that include mentoring, job-shadowing, tutoring, clinical observation, research internships, after-school science programs, visiting scientist programs, a speaker's bureau and family engagement workshops.

History of innovation, service at MassBiologics

MassBiologics of UMass Chan Medical School traces its roots to 1895, when the Massachusetts Antitoxin and Vaccine Laboratory was established by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. It is the only nonprofit, FDA-licensed, vaccine manufacturing facility in the United States. Since 1917, it has manufactured more than 100 million of doses of life-saving treatments and vaccines for numerous diseases and infections and is the single largest manufacturer of the diphtheria/ pertussis/tetanus vaccine in the country. Since the enterprise was transferred by the state to UMass Chan in 1997, MassBiologics has expanded its research and manufacturing mission to combat diseases globally, including rabies, Clostridium difficile infection, and Parkinson’s and Lyme disease.

Campus Mod inspires greener design

When the Campus Modernization project was launched in 2002, one of the primary goals was to fix a construction flaw in the granite façade of the Medical School building. The project grew to encompass the whole campus—replacement of the façade and windows, renovation of clinical areas, and construction of a 1,600-space parking garage—and led to a greener redesign that also created open and light-filled interior spaces. This project also informed and accelerated a transformation of the campus footprint that began with the Lazare Research Building and continues today. The buildings that have risen since the modernization project—the Ambulatory Care Center, the Albert Sherman Center, the VA clinic and the new education and research building slated for completion in the spring of 2024—drew inspiration from the same bright, open design concept that fosters collaboration while taking advantage of new sustainable and technology-enhanced architectural and construction practices.

Hospital spinoff provides joint solution

By 1998, UMass Medical Center was a complex marriage of a medical school, residency program, hospital and medical group. Nationwide, for-profit hospital chains were buying up nonprofit hospital systems. Regionally, hospitals were closing or seeking merger partners. Locally, Memorial Health Care was in merger discussions with a large Boston health care system and the UMass board and University president were concerned about the financial health of University Hospital. A joint solution for both entities was envisioned by a group of university, hospital, board and community leaders in Worcester, who made the case for the most significant legislative changes since the Medical School’s enabling legislation in 1962. This piece of legislation effectively ”spun off” the hospital and medical group into a new nonprofit and merged it with Memorial Health Care, while at the same time, enshrining into law a special affiliation between the newly created clinical system, UMass Memorial Health, and the clinical faculty, academic departments and residency training programs of the Medical School. UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Health share a “linked destiny” and although the legislatively stipulated relationship is complex, both partners have grown far larger and been more successful than either would have been alone.

Historic gift secures continued innovation

What began with a letter of invitation in 2015 resulted in a transformative gift that will shape the institution for future generations. Chancellor Michael F. Collins wrote to Gerald Chan of the Morningside Foundation to introduce him to the Medical School, which, as Chancellor Collins noted, was at an important point on its upward trajectory. That letter launched a relationship that resulted in a $175 million gift in 2021 that will help secure the future of the institution and allow it to continue to carry out its mission to lead and innovate in education, research, health care delivery and public service.

Editor’s note: Beating the Odds: The University of Massachusetts Medical School, A History, 1962–2012, by Ellen More, PhD, emeritus professor of psychiatry and founding head of the Office of Medical History and Archives of the Lamar Soutter Library, was an invaluable resource in compiling this list of moments.