Integrating to Support Our People and Patients: A Q&A with David F. M. Brown, MD, and O’Neil Britton, MD

At Mass General Brigham, our five systemwide goals are a framework to achieve our mission. The goals are designed to provide clear direction, align our efforts and help us track our shared progress.

In March 2024, Mass General Brigham began a journey to unify the departments at our academic medical centers and build new disease-focused institutes across our system. Our goal is to become the most impactful, patient-focused and equitable academic healthcare system in the world with the highest-quality, research-infused care that dramatically improves outcomes and experiences for all we serve.

In the Q&A below, David F. M. Brown, MD, president, academic medical centers, and O’Neil Britton, MD, chief integration officer, talk about this journey and the road ahead for our colleagues.

Q: Can you describe the importance of this goal for all employees at Mass General Brigham?

Brown: Our integration is designed to allow us to harness the incredible talent at our academic medical centers (AMCs) and across the rest of our system to better care for patients, drive world-changing research, enhance access and improve equity. Integration helps us achieve this by removing barriers to collaboration around patient care, education, scientific discovery and innovation. Ultimately, this will allow us to continue to deliver to all our patients the very best research-infused and research-informed care, which is our differentiator. Integration will also help us achieve our other systemwide goals — including becoming the top healthcare system in the country for quality and broadening the reach and impact of our research.

Britton: Integration allows us to create a culture of teamwork, collaboration and learning that makes life better for us and our patients. We will be better positioned to support our outstanding clinicians and staff as we work together to become the global destination for patient care, research and education. Integration also allows us to organize our structure so we can work more efficiently and maximize the allocation of resources to patient care and leading-edge research.

Q: What programs and initiatives are underway to support this goal?

Brown: This year, we are taking significant steps to identify single leaders of departments and programs who will then drive the work of integration by unifying their teams. Identifying single leaders is one of the most visible parts of integrating our academic departments – but it’s only one step in that work. As we go forward, these single leaders will work collaboratively with their colleagues to establish a vision for their unified departments and bring our people together as a single team.

Britton: We are also making significant progress in developing our first three institutes, focused on Cancer, Heart & Vascular and Neuroscience. Through these efforts, we are reorganizing how we work to better support patient care, research, education and support for our communities.

Q: What have you learned as this work has gotten underway?

Britton: The inclusive nature of our process has been incredibly valuable. Frontline clinicians and staff are sharing their perspectives and shaping the design of our disease-focused institutes. We are continuously focused on inviting more colleagues to participate in this work, because it makes us stronger. By meeting colleagues from the system, exchanging ideas and collaborating to design the future, we are starting to feel the energy of the potential greatness that we can achieve together.

Brown: This work has also underscored the value of continuous communication with our colleagues. People receive information in different ways, and we are constantly working to keep everyone updated and engaged through a variety of different channels. We also recognize that integration naturally creates some anxiety and uncertainty among our colleagues. To address that, we are focusing on getting our teams across the system to work together and help define our future structure as quickly as possible. By creating that clarity, we can build confidence and excitement about our future.

Q: How can colleagues across Mass General Brigham support this goal?

Brown: I hope everyone will bring their creativity, optimism and forward-looking thinking to this work. Our integration efforts are made stronger by the contributions of our colleagues, and we want everyone to make their voices heard as we build the future of Mass General Brigham together.

Britton: I would add that we know many colleagues have questions and concerns. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and raise your concerns and ideas. We want to hear from you how we can make our processes better for our colleagues and patients.