Recently, Partners HealthCare unveiled its systemwide strategy, an overarching framework that will guide our decisions and actions in the years ahead. Not surprisingly, the part of the announcement that received the most attention was the new name for Partners HealthCare. In case you haven’t heard, that name is Mass General Brigham.
Founded in 1994, our Partners system has evolved and grown and progressed and matured over the past 25 years. While it has achieved many successes, it has also confronted some significant hurdles. Yet, our system has been able to move forward because it has continuously focused on its patients, its community and a future of improved medicine and better health – the underpinnings of academic medicine.
Strengths of Mass General Brigham
“Massachusetts General Hospital” and “Brigham and Women’s Hospital” are strong and meaningful names in the health care industry. They connote the highest standards of clinical excellence and innovation that should, in fact, represent who we are and what we stand for as a system. The disassociation of the founders’ names from the system name, however, has made this connection and our shared mission and values harder to convey. The name Mass General Brigham more clearly – and more accurately – reflects a system built, shaped and defined by two extraordinary academic medical centers.
In the months to come, as decisions are made and plans develop, we will provide more information about how this new system name will be incorporated throughout the organization. Meanwhile, as Partners HealthCare transitions to Mass General Brigham, the Mass General community can be assured that the Massachusetts General Hospital name will continue to grace this particular academic medical center just as it has for more than two centuries.
