Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and the University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) have established a new strategic affiliation to foster joint research and educational programs that improve healthcare delivery. The five-year affiliation agreement creates a partnership between WPI’s Healthcare Delivery Institute (HDI) and UMMS to bring clinical, scientific, engineering and business management expertise to bear on a range of complex challenges facing the healthcare system.
“Faculty at our institutions have collaborated on projects for many years. Through this new affiliation we hope to create a dynamic and targeted partnership that leverages our respective strengths to advance new technologies, educational and clinical processes that better human health,” said WPI Provost Eric Overström, PhD.
The new affiliation was announced March 20, 2013, at an HDI symposium. As a first step, both WPI and UMMS will appoint members to a joint leadership coordinating committee that will begin to plan, facilitate, and ultimately oversee targeted faculty research collaborations and graduate educational programs. The HDI/UMMS program will also include professional education and career development components, such as physician leadership training in specified areas.
“UMass Medical School and WPI possess complementary arrays of talent in the fields of biomedical and health sciences, technology, and engineering. As a free-standing health sciences campus, UMass Medical School benefits from outside research and development expertise in some of these disciplines, and WPI is a natural partner due both to its proximity and our shared visions,” said Terence R. Flotte, MD, UMMS executive deputy chancellor, provost, and dean of the School of Medicine.
The Healthcare Delivery Institute is a multi-disciplinary organization that includes more than 20 research teams at WPI, external healthcare providers, and industry partners, all working to address the national and global challenge of creating the future of healthcare delivery. At WPI, faculty researchers affiliated with HDI work in areas such as systems engineering, data analytics, mobile and wireless health applications, information technology, advanced robotics, and portable medical devices for monitoring and imaging.
“We welcome this new partnership with our colleagues at UMass Medical School,” said Vera Tice, managing director of HDI. “Through this affiliation we plan to strategically develop high impact practical research and educational programs that improve the delivery of healthcare and patient outcomes, not only here in Massachusetts, but nationally and globally.”
About Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nation’s first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. WPI’s talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university’s innovative Global Perspective Program. There are more than 30 WPI project centers throughout North America and Central America, Africa, Australia, Asia, and Europe.
About the University of Massachusetts Medical School
The University of Massachusetts Medical School, one of the fastest growing academic health centers in the country and a leader in primary care education, has built a reputation as a world-class research institution, consistently producing noteworthy advances in clinical and basic research. UMMS attracted more than $250 million in research funding annually, 80 percent of which comes from federal funding sources. The mission of UMass Medical School is to advance the health and well-being of the people of the commonwealth and the world through pioneering education, research, public service and health care delivery with its clinical partner, UMass Memorial Health Care. For more information, visit www.umassmed.edu.
