Harvard Medical International (HMI), an international medical-consulting arm of Harvard Medical School (HMS), officially changed hands this week. With the move to Partners HealthCare, the parent organization for two of Harvard's largest affiliated teaching hospitals, HMI becomes PHMI—Partners Harvard Medical International—and HMI's approximately 60 employees become Partners employees. (For background on HMI and the change in its operations, see Good-bye to HMI in the current issue of Harvard Magazine.)
Created in 1994 to generate revenue for HMS, HMI was stuck in limbo and could not sign new contracts while talks with Partners were ongoing. Now, says Dr. Andrew A. Jeon, the organization's president and CEO since December, "We have a lot of new business in the pipeline, and we’re excited to be able to engage in new contracts now as Partners Harvard Medical International."
The organization will honor all existing contracts under their original terms. New contracts will be signed under the new name. Jeon said Partners has secured rights to use the word "Harvard" in the organization's name for five years, and will need to renegotiate use of the Harvard name thereafter.
In one sign of the change, HMI World, the organization's internal Web-based publication that announced the transfer on Wednesday, has amended its tagline to read "news from Partners Harvard Medical International." The organization's main website continued to use a Harvard Medical School domain name, but added "Partners" to the page titles and headers.
PHMI has active projects in 20 countries on five continents. The largest, Dubai Healthcare City, will eventually include 4 million square feet of space for hospitals, research facilities, and a medical school. This coming weekend, the organization plans to move its offices from Tremont Street, in space leased from Northeastern University, to 131 Dartmouth Street in Back Bay. Jeon said the move was unrelated to the departure from Harvard and was planned before negotiations with Partners began.
