Introduction

We are a leading academic health sciences center, consisting of the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) and UMass Memorial Health Care (UMass Memorial).

Over the years, while separately serving our patients, learners, faculty, staff, and communities, we each have been committed to aligning our efforts seamlessly in order to achieve our shared mission of advancing the health and well-being of the people of the commonwealth and the world. As a result, much of the work of UMMS and UMass Memorial has become inextricably linked, with the success of each organization being dependent on the other.

While some of the component parts of our enterprise have established plans for the future, this strategic plan was created to cross historic borders in order to create a framework for the whole system, bringing together school and clinical system, basic science and clinical departments, educators and researchers. Its common objectives form a blueprint for the paths and priorities we will follow over the next five years to collectively achieve our stated goals, which were created through consensus by representative groups of both organizations.

To construct this watershed document, we integrated the existing clinical system plan into a new combined plan, thus providing the academic pillar so important for the successful execution of the clinical system plan, while also creating the first comprehensive strategic plan for the Medical School. This approach leverages the combination of our individual and exceptional capabilities, which should enable both organizations to flourish, not just function, in the future.