HMS Spins Off Consulting Arm

Harvard Medical School formally transferred ownership of Harvard Medical International (HMI)—the school’s non-profit consulting subsidiary—on Friday to Partners HealthCare, a company that owns several major Massachusetts hospitals.

The new entity will be known as Partners Harvard Medical International until 2012, after which the Harvard name will be dropped. News of the deal was first reported in January, with word that it would close by mid-March.

“The transfer of HMI to Partners HealthCare will help Harvard Medical School in focusing its international activities on its central mission of education and research,” Medical School Dean Jeffrey S. Flier said through a spokesman. He added that the transfer will also “allow HMI to expand its mission.”

Partners HealthCare will be responsible for all business operations and management of HMI, said Jay B. Pieper, the vice president of the hospital group.

“We have had a very, very long history with working closely with the medical school,” Pieper said. “We expect to continue to do that as both an affiliate of the school and as Partners Harvard Medical International.”

PHMI will push forward with the work that HMI has undertaken since its inception in 1994, including consulting on major healthcare projects like the Dubai Healthcare City.

Though Partners and Harvard had originally expected to finalize the deal to close by mid-March, intensive legal vetting, which took longer than anticipated, delayed the deal by a month, Partners spokeswoman Petra Langer said.

Over the past few years, officials in Mass. Hall and the office of Provost Steven E. Hyman have expressed concern that HMI’s activities no longer fully reflect the Medical School’s core missions of education and research, according to a Crimson report in February.

The spin-off of the subsidiary was pushed through by central administrators—over the fierce objections of HMI’s founders—during the interregnum between former Medical School Dean Joseph B. Martin and Flier.

Harvard officials involved in finalizing the agreement could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Since Partners owns Mass. General and Brigham and Women’s—two of the Medical School’s four major hospitals—Pieper said that the organization would continue to pursue a substantial amount of research and education with the Medical School.

The Medical School will retain and operate certain education-oriented programs that had been part of HMI, Pieper added.

Approximately 60 HMI employees will now work for Partners, according to a letter sent to HMI employees by Partners President James J. Mongan. And interim HMI chief Andrew A. Jeon will remain president and chief executive of the new Partners-owned organization.

Pieper said yesterday that he thought the transfer to Partners would help expand HMI’s reach.

“I think that with the additional clinical capacities of Partners HealthCare, PHMI would have a somewhat broader and deeper capability than HMI had,” Pieper said.

—Staff writer June Q. Wu can be reached at junewu@fas.harvard.edu.