Medical Education

The Division of Health Systems Science (HSS) faculty play an important role in the education of medical students, graduate nursing students, residents, and fellows at UMass Chan Medical School. This includes exposing students to contemporary issues in health care and supporting them to gain the knowledge and skills required to navigate today’s rapidly changing healthcare system.

Below is an overview of some of the division’s educational initiatives.

Undergraduate Medical Education

Health Systems Science
Health Systems Science is the new “third pillar” of medical education at UMass Chan. Division faculty member Dr. Kimberly Fisher co-chairs the school’s Longitudinal Themes  Curriculum Committee, which among other goals serves to oversee and manage the health systems science curricular elements across all years of the medical school curriculum.

Vista Curriculum
Vista debuted in the fall of 2022 with matriculation of the class of 2026. Health Systems Science faculty are involved in the development, leadership, and teaching of the Principles 2: Foundations of Disease, Prevention, and Treatment block in the new UMass Chan Vista curriculum. Division faculty will also teach in courses across the curriculum. You can learn more about the Vista curriculum here.

LInC Curriculum                                                                                                                                             
The “Learner-centered Integrated Curriculum," (LlnC), will sunset when the class of 2025 graduates, but until that point LInC courses continue, and division faculty members are active in teaching within it.

Health Policy and the Practice of Medicine Interstitial Curriculum
This one-day event introduces third-year medical students to issues related to healthcare access, quality, and cost, at both a state and national level. This event is sponsored in collaboration with the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health and the Center for Health Policy and Research.

CAPSTONE Scholarship and Discovery Course
This compulsory course provides medical students with support to build on an existing area of passion, or to identify and develop a new area of passion, following their completion of a mentored scholarly project in one of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine’s core competencies. Our faculty members serve as mentors.