The PURCH Pathway

Discover the PURCH Pathway

Every UMass Chan Medical Student participates in the Pathways Program. PURCH Track students participate in the PURCH Pathway.

How does the PURCH Pathway experience differ from the general UMass Chan pathway programs for Worcester-based students?

PURCH students do not choose one of the pathways offered at the main campus; instead they will participate in the PURCH Pathway as part of the PURCH Track.
The PURCH Pathway is tailored to provide community engaged medical education.
The PURCH Pathway is built around a curriculum covering community advocacy, social determinants of health, and scholarship.
PURCH Pathway Ventures partners students with local community organizations longitudinally over 3.5 years as part of the PURCH Pathway curriculum

"Nothing felt quite as rewarding in this Venture as when I was able to attend the New England Rural Health Association’s annual conference. I came away from this conference with an understanding that being part of this venture has connected me to a much larger movement of organizations aiming to achieve equity for communities living outside large, metropolitan areas."
-Alix Pupo Wiss, Class of 2026

PURCH Pathway Curriculum

The PURCH Pathway curriculum is designed to both provide a background in how societal and environmental forces impact communities in need and provide the students with tools they can use to assess and address community needs.

Examples of teaching sessions include:

The Socioecological Model
Culture, Community, and Context
Qualitative Research Methods
Community Health Needs Assessment

PURCH Pathway Ventures

For the PURCH Pathway Ventures students will collaborate with a local community organization to address a healthcare need within the community. As part of this collaboration between students and community partners, students will participate in community organizations’ projects that are designed to provide real value to the partnering organizations in meeting community needs.

"During the first meeting with our Pathway Ventures’ newly formed task force, we were asked about the background research on surveying provider attitudes towards harm reduction. Fortunately, we had a literature review in our back pocket and we were able to share that information with the community partners. Even though we lack the years of experience in this field, having the skills to perform an in-depth literature review proved to be valuable and translatable to the needs of the organization."
- Liz Irvin, Class of 2026

PURCH Pathway Ventures Timeline:

Year 1

Meet with community partners
Define or redefine ideas for projects needed by the community organizations
Complete work plans on how to serve community organizations and advance initiatives
Literature search on community partner area of interest

Year 2

Continue to work on community organization’s project, define target population, community needs, etc.
Refine work plan
Oral presentation on the current state of community organization partnership and project

Year 3

Dedicated 4-week pathway elective to engage with a community partner organization and advance community project
Reflective writing assignment
Persuasive writing assignment - letter to the editor, op-ed, etc.

Year 4

Dedicated 4 week pathway course to complete partnership with a community organization
Submit a Scholarly work on a community project, which can be in the form of an advocacy white paper or manuscript for publication, etc.
Present in the spring at the PURCH Pathway Symposium

"The most rewarding aspect of my involvement with the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership (BSEP) has been witnessing the profound impact it has had on countless students. BSEP acts as a crucial resource for many young adults, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, by introducing them to healthcare careers they might never have otherwise encountered. Having grown up in an extremely rural community in Western Massachusetts, I often reflect on how a program like BSEP could have been transformative for myself and my peers, who had very limited exposure to healthcare. I have been honored to be a part of such an important program while at Baystate."
- Eli Brennan, Class of 2026

Examples of PURCH Pathway Ventures:

Class of 2026

Estoy Aqui- Addressing Suicide through a Community and Upstream Prevention Lens.
ReGreen Springfield- This venture will examine the relationship between trees and urban populations, using Springfield as a living laboratory.
Hilltown Community Health Center- This venture will collect information and build community profiles and needs to help HCHC provide culturally and linguistically appropriate health care to these populations.
Baystate Health Department of Family Medicine- Provides the opportunity for a student to further explore social determinants of health that affect rural communities that they would like to explore/understand.
Quaboag Connector/Quaboag Valley CDC- Addressing access to reliable, affordable transportation as a social determinant of health in the Quaboag Valley and other rural areas.
Wellness on Wheels- WoW Bus Assessment & Implementation of Mental Health Prevention Education Resources and Services.
Bay Path University/Baystate Medical- This project is an international interprofessional program where students from different disciplines come together and create a community relationship with a community in Ghana Africa.
Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership (BSEP)- Health Career Exploration for students and parents.
Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts- Cannabis Poisoning.

Class of 2027

Department of Healthcare Delivery and Population Sciences; Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine- Lung Cancer screening and how to engage and navigate populations from diverse backgrounds and multiple barriers to accessing screening.
Alianza Domestic Violence Services- engaging students in the design of Alianza’s potential intervention and prevention strategies to reduce teen dating and intimate partner violence, in partnership with selected schools.
BeHealthy Partnership (Medicaid ACO)- Helping to improve access to Preventative Care Services (i.e. Breast Cancer Screening, Colorectal Cancer Screening and Immunizations). Improving perinatal mortality and morbidity in birthing people of Color. Improving Youth Mental Health through Early Intervention.
Clinical & Support Options- Collaborating with community organizations on Community Gardening & Nutrition Education, explore and help overcome housing challenges among disabled and medically compromised homeless individuals, and Help foster an interconnected community of providers.
Communities That Care Coalition (CTC), Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG)- School Policies on Screen Use in Schools
Viability, Inc.- supporting persons with disabilities to get employment opportunities.
Baystate Health Wellness on Wheels (WoW) Bus- Assessment & implementation of mental health prevention education resources and services.
Northampton Department of Health and Human Services- The DHHS has a mission to protect, preserve, and promote the health and well-being of all Northampton’s residents.

Class of 2028

Baystate Health Pediatric Trauma – Addressing youth violence through literacy by partnering with Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services' after-school program to tackle literacy challenges linked to behavioral issues and the school-to-prison pipeline.
Alianza Domestic Violence Services – Improving systems that support children exposed to intimate partner and domestic violence through school-based interventions, including infographics for teachers, therapists, healthcare providers, and community workers.
Transhealth – Providing medico-legal support to Greater New England's transgender community and caregivers by assessing barriers to care via survey and developing a resource guide on knowing your rights in a changing legal landscape.
Baystate Health Wing Hospital – Reducing hospital readmission rates for patients with diabetes complications through data analysis, patient interviews, interdisciplinary collaboration, and development of evidence-based recommendations and care coordination resources.
Heart 2 Heart Beat (Maternal & Infant Health) – Addressing Black maternal health disparities, maternal mental health, breastfeeding support, safe sleep, social determinants of health, and father engagement through equity-focused community partnerships.
Baystate Health Department of Pediatrics – Supporting mothers with substance use disorder through the Mothering from the Inside Out (MIO) intervention by developing fidelity assessments and expanding the program to community-based home visiting professionals.
Hilltown Community Health Center – Creating an inclusive and equitable Patient and Family Advisory Council (PFAC) model at the John P. Musante Health Center in Amherst.
Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services – Partnering health centers with food pantries to improve fresh food access through recipe cards, food boxes, and community feedback collection.
Baystate Health Trauma and Injury Prevention – Implementing the Bingocize program for fall prevention in seniors, assessing health outcomes and life satisfaction.

Class of 2029

Springfield Food Policy Council – Addressing food insecurity and diet-related chronic disease through community-centered public health initiatives, including resident engagement, asset mapping, and policy development to increase access to healthy and culturally relevant foods across Springfield neighborhoods.
Born Free Outreach Services – Improving health literacy by developing community-centered strategies to help underserved individuals and families better understand food labels, medication instructions, and product safety warnings through interactive workshops and culturally accessible educational materials.
Nuestras Raíces – Addressing diet-related chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension that disproportionately impact Hispanic communities by developing culturally tailored and language-appropriate food is medicine programming in collaboration with healthcare and elder care organizations across the region.
Westfield State University – Strengthening the regional primary care workforce pipeline through a longitudinal mentorship model in which PURCH medical students mentor Westfield State pre-medical students, with a focus on first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students from Western Massachusetts.
Northampton Department of Health and Human Services – Supporting the DHHS mission to protect and promote the health of Northampton's most vulnerable residents by exploring areas including women's health equity, primary care access, pharmacy deserts, environmental health justice, and medical billing's impact on health equity.
Baystate Department of Healthcare Delivery and Population Sciences – Evaluating how Medicaid ACO structures and insurance characteristics shape access to care and health outcomes for children and pregnant people, with the goal of ensuring coverage reforms do not widen existing maternal and child health disparities.
Estoy Aquí, LLC – Developing a culturally grounded digital training prototype for primary care providers serving Latin American immigrant communities, integrating evidence-based mental health screening practices with cultural frameworks around familism, gender roles, colorism, and acculturation stress.
MOCHA (Men of Color Health Awareness) – Examining how social determinants of health shape well-being in the greater Springfield area through community outreach, qualitative and quantitative data collection, and partnership with local organizations to advance health equity for low-income residents and communities of color.
Baystate Health Trauma and Injury Prevention – Developing and implementing a comprehensive senior safety program addressing fall prevention, emergency preparedness, Stop the Bleed training, and CPR education to equip older adults and caregivers with life-saving skills and strengthen community-based injury prevention.