Dear Members of the Brown Community,

We are writing today to share that Brown University and Lifespan health system have finalized terms on a set of expanded affiliation agreements to strengthen top-quality patient care, medical education and biomedical research in Rhode Island.

As part of the agreements, Lifespan will change its name to Brown University Health later this year through a rebranding effort to be developed over the next several months. The health system and the University will continue as separate, independent organizations after the implementation of the Lifespan rebrand to Brown University Health.

Strong economic headwinds continue to strain the health care sector, and the expansion of our affiliation with Lifespan will enhance the health system’s ability to recruit and retain world-class physicians while reflecting a deeper alignment between Lifespan’s clinical care and Brown’s academic and research focus. Amid the challenging health care climate, Brown has an important role to play in ensuring that the people of Rhode Island continue to have opportunities to access high-quality treatment in their home state.

In October, we informed the campus community that the Lifespan Board of Directors and the Corporation of Brown University had voted on a non-binding term sheet to expand upon existing agreements that expired in December 2023. The final terms of the expanded agreements include reciprocal financial investments between Brown and Lifespan, as well as governance and academic considerations.

Those who have been part of the Brown community for some time know that Brown has a long record of working in partnership with local health care systems and providers to sustain the quality of medical care for patients across the state and surrounding regions. These agreements with Lifespan advance Brown’s goals to ensure that medical students, residents and fellows are learning from outstanding clinicians with opportunities to train using the latest technology and techniques.

Brown’s investments promise to accelerate improvements including the expansion of electronic health records and the recruitment of talented academic and clinical leaders for the Warren Alpert Medical School and its affiliated hospitals. These agreements also strengthen the work we have been doing for several years to integrate research and break down barriers for physicians and scientists who translate discoveries in the lab into treatments benefitting patients.

The enhanced affiliation between the University and Lifespan will not impact Brown’s deeply valued affiliations with Care New England, the VA Providence Healthcare System, HopeHealth and Brown Physicians Inc. These affiliations remain vital to the medical school’s teaching, clinical care, community engagement and research missions.

In addition, Brown, Lifespan and Care New England will continue their efforts toward their aligned research collaboration, known as BIRCH, that was established last year. The three organizations are working to streamline research administration through the Brown Innovation and Research Collaborative for Health.

Brown University Health Builds on Years of Partnership

Lifespan and our Warren Alpert Medical School have an affiliation agreement dating back to 1969, before a four-year medical program was established at the University. Today, three of the Lifespan hospitals are academic teaching hospitals — Rhode Island, The Miriam and Bradley hospitals. Many physicians in these hospitals are faculty members of Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School and are employed by Lifespan.

The expanded agreements between Brown and Lifespan reflect an ongoing shared commitment to aligning the strengths of both institutions, with the joint goal of bolstering the connections between and across delivery of care, medical training and biomedical research. With the health care sector facing ongoing challenges including inflation, labor shortages and low reimbursement rates, Brown’s affiliation with Lifespan is evolving along with an ever-changing health care environment.

The new agreements enhance our affiliation in four broad areas:

(1) New Name: The new agreements move the relationship between Brown and Lifespan to a more contemporary model in line with other affiliation agreements we see across the country, where the academic-medical affiliation is reflected through a shared name between the hospital system and the academic institution.

The health system will continue to use the name Lifespan in all of its business operations until its new name officially launches on a to-be-determined date, expected later this year, with the full rebrand taking several years to complete. The official rebranding of Lifespan to Brown University Health — to be referred to commonly as Brown Health — will reflect the ability to provide medical care of international caliber to Rhode Islanders.

(2) New Financial Investments: Beginning July 1, 2024, Brown will make annual investments in Lifespan, totaling $150 million over seven years, to strengthen Lifespan’s financial capacity to sustain and advance the shared academic mission of our two organizations. Following that seven-year period, Lifespan will invest $15 million annually to support the Warren Alpert Medical School’s medical education and research efforts for the life of the agreement.

In addition, the Brown Investment Office will manage approximately $600 million to $800 million of Lifespan’s investment portfolio, creating the capacity for increased returns to support Lifespan’s mission. The portfolio will be phased in on a schedule expected to be about $200 million per year over four years.

(3) Enhanced Academics and (4) Governance: The agreements establish that the Warren Alpert Medical School dean will serve as Lifespan’s chief academic officer. In addition, the president of Brown and the dean of its medical school will become ex officio members of Lifespan’s Board of Directors. The agreements also formalize a series of terms around academic affiliations, including establishing that the Warren Alpert Medical School will be the exclusive medical school affiliate of Lifespan, and Lifespan will continue to be the home of 11 of the medical school’s clinical departments.

For those interested in learning more about the terms of the agreements, there is more information in Brown’s public news announcement posted online today. The news announcement provides detailed examples of mission-oriented Lifespan activities and strategic initiatives that will be funded by Brown’s investments. It also outlines further terms of the academic affiliations.

Given the long history of efforts to strengthen partnerships between Brown and Rhode Island’s health systems in the past, it’s important to make clear that Lifespan and Brown are not merging. Neither Brown nor Lifespan is purchasing any part of the other, and we will remain separate and independent entities. For these reasons, the enhanced agreements did not require regulatory or legislative approval.

However, both the Rhode Island Department of Health and Office of the Attorney General were engaged in conducting separate reviews of our agreements, and we appreciate their efforts in support of our goals to align the strengths of Brown and Lifespan. This included fruitful discussions with the Attorney General, who confirmed that no further regulatory review is required at this time.

We want to express our excitement for building stronger relationships with Lifespan CEO John Fernandez and the entire team at Lifespan. They have been excellent partners in establishing agreements that will lead to deeper Brown-Lifespan collaborations in clinical care, medical education, population health, public health and biomedical research.

With new financial investments, updated academic and governance terms, and a new name for Rhode Island’s largest health care system, we are excited to move forward in sustaining efforts to capitalize on each organization’s existing strengths. We are committed to strategically build research capacity, coordinate effectively with other local institutions, and create new partnerships that benefit the people and economies of Rhode Island.

Sincerely,

Christina H. Paxson
President

Mukesh K. Jain, MD
Senior Vice President for Health Affairs
Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences