New Era in south Florida Medicine

Miller School Launches UHealth—the University of Miami Health System

With celebratory and educational events at the Miller School of Medicine and University of Miami Hospital, UM officially launched the University of Miami Health System, also known as UHealth, the new name for South Florida’s only comprehensive network of university-based medical entities and a national brand that signifies the best in modern health care.

The launch events were held March 25 and 26 to educate physicians and staff about all aspects of UHealth and to inform them of how critically important they are to the new brand that’s been in the making since 1952, the year the medical school opened as the first in Florida.

UHealth consists of University of Miami Hospital, an acute care hospital acquired by the University in December, and two other UM hospitals: Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center/UM Hospital and Clinics and Bascom Palmer Eye Institute/Anne Bates Leach Eye Hospital. Additionally, there are three major UHealth affiliated institutions—Jackson Memorial Hospital, Holtz Children’s Hospital, and Miami VA Medical Center—and more than two dozen outpatient facilities.

“UHealth represents a new era in medical care for the citizens of South Florida, integrating an academic health-delivery system that combines world-class clinical research, outstanding physicians, and hospital services under one roof,” said William O’Neill, M.D., executive dean for clinical affairs. “This is a major boost for health care in the community.”

Michele Chulick, associate vice president and director of hospital operations, called UHealth “the launch of an incredible opportunity.”

An estimated 7,000 Miller School and UM Hospital physicians, staff, and medical students streamed through the “Welcome to UHealth Centers” set up for the launch events at the medical school and in the hospital’s seminar center.

The UHealth logo—emblazoned on T-shirts, printed on posters and brochures, and displayed in a video—is composed of the trademark orange and green “U” of the University of Miami. The tagline, “There is only one U,” also appears on printed material and in the video, which features Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., and several health system physicians and staff.

“UHealth is a terrific innovation, and it’s in keeping with the mission of the University of Miami to always be on the cutting edge of new ways to extend excellent heath care to more people,” said researcher Deborah Jones, Ph.D., who attended the March 25 launch event with several of her Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences colleagues. “This is a big, important step for UM.”