How Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University Unified Graduate Medical, Research, and Allied Health Programs with Maestro SIS

Topics: Higher Education SIS, Graduate Medical Education, Enrollment Migration, Compliance & Reporting, Multi-School Hierarchy Management

Written by: Maestro SIS and CSHS

"Our previous SIS was clunky, not user friendly, and not intuitive. We wanted something more fun to use, something we could actually train other people on."

— CSHS Implementation Team, Maestro Planning Meeting

Executive Summary

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University (CSHS) is the academic arm of Cedars-Sinai, a nonprofit academic medical center in Los Angeles, California. CSHS brings together the accredited Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Graduate Medical Education, and Continuing Medical Education under one institution.

Client Perspective

"We were looking for a system that was easy to use for administrators and students, with the ability to grow with our enrollment. Maestro was the perfect solution."

— Academic Program Advisor, CSHS

"Maestro has been able to meet all of our needs; the customer service is outstanding, as well as addressing our varied requirements."

— Director, HSU Admin

Institutional Background

Cedars-Sinai's Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences was founded in 2007 and first accredited in 2012, with its accreditation renewed by WSCUC in 2023 for an additional eight years. The school offers a PhD in Biomedical Sciences and Translational Medicine, a PhD in Imaging, a Master of Science in Health Delivery Science, a Master of Science in Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, a Master in Regenerative Medicine, and a Master of Translational Immunology. In 2025, WSCUC accredited a new PhD in Health Artificial Intelligence, one of the first programs of its kind. Cedars-Sinai formally established the Health Sciences University in 2024 to unite these degree programs with its graduate medical education and continuing medical education work. HSU also established the Chuck Lorre Allied Health School in 2025, with programs in clinical laboratory science, pharmacy technician, a BS in respiratory care, and neurodiagnostic technology.

Within Maestro SIS, CSHS's structure includes Graduate Medical Education (residency and fellowship training, along with continuing medical education for practicing clinicians), Graduate Research Education, Allied Health, and a virtual-programs school, alongside its accredited biomedical sciences graduate programs. As CSHS grows, this structure is designed to support additional schools and doctoral programs without another system change.

The Challenge

Managing Growing Complexity

CSHS staff described their previous SIS as workable for a small, static program but not for an institution planning to expand. As CSHS looked toward new programs, additional schools under the Cedars-Sinai umbrella, and an eventual Title IV designation for federal financial aid, the limits of the old system became harder to work around.

Key Pain Points

Disconnected Data — Student and program information lived across an SIS, an LMS, and a PayPal-based payment setup, with no single source of truth and no easy way to reconcile records between them.

Manual Workflows — Reporting and data exports ran through the former vendor rather than CSHS staff. One internal, technically minded staff member ended up handling most administrative work because the system was too complex for others to use with confidence.

Limited Visibility — Their previous client-server SIS offered little in the way of audit trails, which made it difficult to track who changed a record, and when.

Staff and Student Friction — An outdated interface and inconsistent navigation made the system hard to train new staff on and unpleasant to use day to day.

The Solution

Implementing Maestro SIS

BocaVox worked with CSHS to migrate student, faculty, course, and enrollment data out of their old system and into Maestro SIS, and to design an organizational structure that could support the university's current schools as well as the ones it plans to add next.

1. Centralized Data Management

Maestro organizes CSHS under a single hierarchy: Cedars-Sinai at the top, Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University beneath it, and individual schools — including Graduate Medical Education, Continuing Medical Education, and Graduate Research Education — below that. The structure was planned up front so CSHS can add schools and programs without redesigning the system later.

2. Workflow Automation

Staff can filter and export any data grid to CSV in seconds, bulk-select records for update, and reimport them without waiting on a vendor. Bulk import tools also let CSHS bring in visiting students from partner systems such as VSLO and UCLA without routing them through a full application process.

3. Improved User Experience

Maestro SIS's forms and required fields were tuned to CSHS's own workflows, and application and enrollment statuses were relabeled to match the university's tone — for example, changing "rejected" to "declined." The result is a system that program administrators and instructors can use directly, rather than one that depends on a single power user.

4. Reporting and Compliance

Maestro SIS gives CSHS detailed audit logs of logins and record changes, role-based access controls, and a controlled "login as" function for support. Its ledger tracks itemized charges, payments, and invoices with references that reconcile against gateway and bank reports, replacing a payment setup that had previously sat outside CSHS's direct control.

Migration Approach

To avoid rebuilding years of inconsistent course and term structures from their previous SIS, CSHS's legacy enrollment history moved into Maestro as external enrollments. Those records still appear on student transcripts with their original course, grade, credit, and term detail, without requiring a one-to-one recreation of the full enrollment history. New and active enrollments at cutover use full Maestro SIS records, so data going forward stays clean and consistent. CSHS completed its bulk imports before its first Maestro SIS term began, then activated login access for all imported users on a single, coordinated go-live date.

Results and Impact

Operational Improvements

Admissions — Visiting students from VSLO and UCLA can be imported directly, instead of moving each one through a full application.

Enrollment — Legacy enrollment history is preserved on transcripts as external enrollments, while new enrollments run on full Maestro records.

Student Services — Program staff, not only one administrator, can manage records and workflows directly.

Reporting — Any grid can be filtered and exported to CSV without help from a vendor.

Compliance — Detailed audit logs and role-based access give CSHS the tracking that Empower could not provide.

Student Experience Benefits

Improved Access to Information — Students and visiting learners move through admissions and enrollment on a modern, mobile- and tablet-friendly interface.

Enhanced Communication — Centralized forms and notifications, for items such as immunizations and competencies, replace a patchwork of separate tools.

Reduced Administrative Friction — Clearer application statuses, such as "declined" instead of "rejected," better reflect CSHS's tone and reduce confusion for applicants and students.

Organizational Outcomes

Greater Efficiency — Self-service reporting and bulk operations reduce CSHS's reliance on a single staff member and on its former vendor. Cloud hosting allows CSHS users to easily access their system anywhere, allowing better collaboration between onsite and remote workers.

Better Decision-Making — Standard and custom reports covering payments, ledgers, competency expirations, referral sources, and rotation tracking give staff real-time visibility they did not have in Empower.

Scalability — The Cedars-Sinai to CSHS to school hierarchy already spans Graduate Medical Education, Continuing Medical Education, and Graduate Research Education, with room to add further schools and programs as CSHS grows.

Outcomes

• Maestro SIS now manages student and enrollment records for CSHS's schools, consolidating what had been split across multiple systems.
• Legacy course and enrollment history migrated into Maestro SIS as external enrollments, preserving transcript accuracy without a full historical rebuild.
• CSHS moved from a vendor-managed payment setup to direct integration with standard gateways, including PayPal under its own account, with reconciliation handled through Maestro SIS's ledger.
• The new organizational structure is built to support CSHS's plans for a Title IV financial aid designation and additional programs without another system change.

Looking Ahead

CSHS plans to build out its financial aid module as it works toward Title IV eligibility. As CSHS adds programs, including further doctoral offerings and additional schools under the Cedars-Sinai umbrella, its Maestro SIS hierarchy is already structured to absorb that growth.

Conclusion

By transitioning to Maestro SIS, Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University replaced a system that only a handful of people could operate with one its program staff, instructors, and administrators can use directly. The migration preserved years of enrollment history without forcing a rebuild of legacy structures, gave CSHS control over its own reporting and payment reconciliation, and left the university with a scalable foundation for the schools and programs it plans to add next.