Founded through a 1996 merger, BMC has grown into a leading academic health system serving patients and communities across the Commonwealth.
BOSTON, MA — June 29, 2026 | Boston Medical Center (BMC), New England's largest essential hospital, today marked 30 years since it was formed as an academic medical center through the historic merger of Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center. The merger, led by then-Mayor Thomas M. Menino, preserved Boston City Hospital's longstanding mission of providing high-quality care to all patients while strengthening its connection to clinical excellence, research, and education.
Since its founding in 1996, BMC has transformed lives by training generations of healthcare professionals while advancing its founding commitment to access and equity. As the primary teaching affiliate of Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, BMC trains the next generation of clinicians through more than 65 residency and fellowship programs with more than 700 positions. That care reaches more than 1.2 million patients each year across more than 70 specialties and subspecialties.
BMC has also become one of the nation's most research-intensive essential hospitals, driven by a steadfast commitment to rigorous, community-informed science. BMC's Clinical Research Unit brings innovative, interdisciplinary research directly to communities not historically represented in clinical trials, with more than 180 active clinical trials underway. BMC was also the first hospital in New England to offer gene therapies for adults with sickle cell disease, bringing innovative medicine to the communities that need it most.
At the heart of everything Boston Medical Center does is a singular commitment to health equity. BMC creates innovative programs in collaboration with community and national partners that address the root causes of poor health and wellness outcomes and are designed to meet the needs of its patients and communities.
The Health Equity Accelerator, which launched in 2020, is one of BMC's defining programs — a first-of-its-kind comprehensive approach that brings together research, clinical care, hospital operations, and community engagement to address systemic inequities and eliminate gaps in life expectancy and quality of life. That same patient-centered thinking fuels BMC's Clean Power Prescription program, a national first that enables providers to prescribe reduced utility bills through renewable energy. It is also at the core of BMC's Preventive Food Pantry, established in 2001 as the first program in the country where physicians write prescriptions for food to support nutritional needs of patients managing a range of health and economic conditions. The pantry provides culturally relevant foods directly to thousands of eligible patients and broader community programs monthly, supported by two rooftop farms on the hospital campus that produce nearly 10,000 pounds of fresh produce annually. BMC's Curbside Care program extends that reach further, sending multidisciplinary teams directly into Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, and Hyde Park to deliver postnatal care to mothers and newborns at home.
Each of these examples reflects the same foundational premise that BMC was founded on three decades ago—demonstrating that BMC is built different by design.
“BMC was built to serve patients other institutions were not designed to support,” said Anthony Hollenberg, MD, President, BMC and System Chief Physician Executive. “Thirty years later, that has not changed. What has changed is the depth and reach of our clinical programs and wraparound services. We have grown into a health system that not only trains future clinical leaders, but advances science and builds solutions that have become a foundational blueprint for other institutions across the nation. That growth has always been in service of the people-centered mission of our founding. That is what being different by design looks like.”
About Boston Medical Center
Boston Medical Center Health System is an integrated academic healthcare system that models a new kind of excellence in healthcare where clinical and operational innovation meets health equity and access. BMC Health System is dedicated to advancing scientific discovery and access to care, partnering with our communities, and developing scalable approaches to restore and maintain health. With more than 15,000 dedicated employees, BMC Health System includes our founding academic medical center, Boston Medical Center, two hospitals in the community, BMC Brighton and BMC South, WellSense Health Plan, and other health-enhancing entities serving patients and health plan members across New England and beyond.