Chancellor Michael F. Collins kicked off a new Voices of UMass Chan podcast season by highlighting the growth and future of UMass Chan Medical School and how it is shaping the future of health care.
Chancellor Collins emphasized how the class size in the T.H. Chan School of Medicine has grown from 100 medical students when he came to UMass Chan 18 years ago to 235 medical students in this year’s new class.
“The health care workforce of tomorrow gets educated today,” he said.
The T.H. Chan School of Medicine Class of 2028 includes the first cohort from the new UMass Chan-Lahey regional medical school campus. Collins described with great enthusiasm the excitement among faculty, staff and students for the LEAD@Lahey track, which has 32 first-year students enrolled and is focused on leadership, health systems science and interprofessional education.
“[Faculty and students] come up to me one after another to say, ‘This is the greatest thing. These students are fantastic. I’m so thrilled to be part of this program,’” he said.
Collins underscored the importance of growth, not only in student numbers but in research, infrastructure and partnerships, to keep pace with the evolving needs of the health care industry.
Listen to the full Voices of UMass Chan podcast here: umassmed.edu/voices. Subscribe through SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
