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PURCH Class of 2026
UMass Chan Medical School-Baystate logo "The PURCH community challenges, nurtures, and inspires me—the lessons I learn from this group will stay with me throughout my career and life."
—Emily Gang, Class of 2024

Her 1st Choice

Kendall Burdick will be a pediatrics resident at Boston Children's hospital.

Watch her open the envelope
Kendall Burdick Matches with First choice, Boston Children's Hospital

PURCH: Population-based Urban & Rural Community Health

Not Just for Medical Students Interested in Primary Care

Whatever medical specialty you wish to pursue, the PURCH Pathway's innovative and immersive approach to community engagement, health equity, clinical practice, and advocacy provides a foundation upon which to build your career.

how to apply

PURCH is Built With—and For—Our Communities

Be the Kind of Physician Our Communities Need

We orient your entire medical education experience around the characteristics community members told us they want in a physician—we call them the 5 PURCH principles:

Excellent Diagnosticians who are Empathetic, Reflective, Team-oriented, and Leaders who can be led.

Address Real Issues Impacting Urban and Rural Western Mass

You will collaborate with the community across all four years, learning to apply population health principles to healthcare issues—and underlying social determinants of health—common to our under-served urban and rural communities.

Be Welcomed into a Community of Practice

PURCH's smaller class size of approximately 25 medical students makes Brightwood House an exceptionally close learning community.

Our faculty, students, and community faculty share a culture of shared values built around how to put PURCH principles into action in clinical care, community engagement/advocacy, and professional activities/career growth.

Get the Clinical Experience You Want and Need

Baystate Health, the regional campus of UMass Chan Medical School in Springfield, MA, is one of the largest academic health systems in New England.

During your clinical training you will see the gamut of medical conditions as you work on interdisciplinary clinical teams of professionals and students.

Join Us!

> PURCH is different

> Meet our students

how to apply