Message From the Chair
Welcome to the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Health, the first department of Family Medicine in New England.
We are celebrating our 50th anniversary, and we are Family Medicine Proud!
Our department was founded by pioneers who understood that the care of individual patients could not be separated from the care of families and communities. Rooted in a commitment to health justice, we are innovators and leaders in education and research. We are guided by the vision of Healthy people, families, and communities - with equal access for all. Our graduates are leaders in promoting justice in our communities, whether through direct care for patients or spearheading systems change that improve quality and access for all.
Our educational footprint is massive, with alumni densely populating our state and spanning the nation and globe. To date, 653 UMass-Chan medical students matched to Family Medicine residencies, and we have trained nearly 800 Family Medicine residents at our Worcester and Fitchburg programs. These graduates and those of our fellowships improve access to care for our most marginalized patients. Many alumni have stayed to serve as faculty or preceptors, inspiring the next generation of family physicians and behavioral health professionals. Talk about impact!
Our academic mission emphasizes the relationship between clinical practice and community health with a particular focus on serving marginalized communities, demonstrating a commitment to addressing systemic oppression and promoting anti-racism. The breadth and depth of our clinical operations provide an excellent platform to train the next generation of family doctors.
We support a diverse, creative, interprofessional faculty with skills ranging from health policy to clinical care. Our fellowship in Primary Care Psychology and Medical Education is celebrating its 25th anniversary. This training program has been a pioneer in promoting inter-professional education and developing leaders in the integration of primary care and behavioral healthcare with 30 graduates to date.
We provide environments where our extraordinary faculty collaborate with each other, with learners, with teams, and with patients. We provide opportunities for student and resident scholarship, as well as professional development and advancement of our faculty, as this enhances excellence in clinical care, education, research, and professional satisfaction.
To support opportunities for student and resident scholarship, and innovations in education and practice, we have created The Daniel H. Lasser Family Medicine Education Innovation Fund. This fund, in honor of the highly respected former chair of our department, will serve as a catalyst to find solutions to complicated problems as we advocate for our patients and their communities, for rational transformation of the health care system, and for equal access for all. We are engaged in efforts to improve models of delivering primary care to achieve better outcomes, better patient experience, and settings where clinicians and staff can thrive.
We celebrate that the best and the brightest are part of our academic community and look forward to the future, as we continue to confront the complex challenges of healthcare delivery, especially for marginalized communities.
We invite you to join us in our 50th anniversary, come to our reunion and celebration on March 15th and learn more about our clinical, educational, research, and community programs by exploring our website, or by contacting Family.Medicine50th@umassmed.edu.
M. Diane McKee, MD, MS
Professor and Chair
UMass Memorial Ledwith Chair in Family and Community Medicine