Univ. of St. Joseph expands clinical training partnership with physician network

The University of St. Joseph is expanding a partnership with a Windsor-based network of independent physician practices that places nurse practitioner and physician assistant students in supervised clinical rotations in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The network, Southern New England Healthcare Organization, or SoNE HEALTH, is owned and governed by physicians and focuses on population health and value-based care. It markets that model as an alternative to the consolidation reshaping independent practices in the state. USJ and SoNE HEALTH signed an academic affiliation agreement in fall 2025. Since then, USJ students have completed rotations at three practices in the network: Personal Primary Care and Weight Management, REVIVE Center for Health & Wellness and Healing Pulse Medical, the organizations said. USJ's nurse practitioner program offers family and psychiatric-mental health tracks. Its physician assistant program requires nine clinical rotations of about five weeks each, including core placements in family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine. The partnership could expand to include students in social work, pharmacy, nursing, dietetics and public health, the organizations said. "We believe that part of a medical professional's career should be educating students who will become future colleagues," said Dr. James Uberti, chief medical officer at SoNE HEALTH. "This collaboration is increasingly important given the shortage of providers, in particular primary care providers, in Connecticut and Massachusetts." Uberti is also president of SoNE HEALTH Medical Group, which the network formed in January 2025. Clinical placements can be a constraint for health professions programs, as schools compete for a limited pool of practicing clinicians willing to supervise students. That competition has intensified as primary care capacity tightens across the state. USJ is a private Catholic university in West Hartford with health sciences programs including nursing, pharmacy and physician assistant studies.