Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Message from the Dean
Welcome to UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where the endeavors of our faculty and students are evidence of a new paradigm in academic medicine that advances the pursuit of excellence in our four mission areas: education, research, patient care, and community health. In the past year, we established initiatives that reflect our support for this new model - a fresh perspective that frames our approach to educating and training students as culturally competent caregivers, with the skills to be career-long learners, well into the 21st century.

The new academic paradigm has shaped real achievements. We have strengthened our ties to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), our principal affiliate hospital, with the collaborative goal of developing the premier academic health care center in New Jersey. We are revising our curriculum to better reflect a team-based, patient-centered approach to clinical care. We broadened our already diverse research enterprise, encompassing the nationally recognized division of research in our Department of Family Medicine, as well as our new Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences and our exceptional cohort of basic science researchers.

In every department, students and residents gained experience with up-to-the-minute technologies for patient care that were literally at their fingertips. We established an Office of Global Health that will provide channels for our faculty members' and students' enthusiasm for serving patients and communities worldwide. We expanded our collaborations in the neighboring community, as community health is where all our missions truly intersect. Faculty members created or expanded initiatives that respond to the special health care problems of people in need. Student-run clinics in Camden and New Brunswick continue to expand, providing essential, culturally-sensitive primary care services to those who are underinsured.

I thank all who contributed to our successful shift to the new academic paradigm. I salute your ongoing efforts, your achievements, and your continuing vision.

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School At-a-Glance
A Quick Reference Guide for Everyone
Founded in 1962, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School is an academic unit of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the state's university of the health sciences.

The medical school originally was formed as Rutgers Medical School through a grant from the Kellogg Foundation.

The medical school encompasses 22 basic science and clinical departments and six major institutes at its three campuses and integrates diverse clinical programs conducted at hospital affiliates and ambulatory care sites throughout the state.

• The Class of 2015 has both a strong academic record and a substantial background in advocacy and service. In the United States and overseas, they gained health care experience in a wide variety of settings. The 130 members of the entering class were educated at 57 different undergraduate institutions. Nineteen percent are alumni of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and 16 percent attended Ivy League colleges. Eighty percent had a single or double major in the biological or physical sciences, and six students were pre-accepted as members of the MD/PhD program. Twenty-three percent were born aboard, while 63 percent are natives of the tri-state area. In addition to English, they speak 24 different languages, and, continuing the trend of the past decade, the majority -- 57 percent -- are women.
• The medical school has more than 2,750 full-time, part-time and volunteer faculty members.
• RWJMS provides charitable clinical care to indigent patients at an estimated cost of $38 million annually.
• Clinical income for RWJMS in FY 2011 exceeded $147 million.
• RWJMS sponsors 48 graduate medical education programs, 44 are accredited by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and four either by Speciality Boards or without the option of accreditation.
• The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School offers 9 joint PhD programs with Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, several of which offer an MS option. GSBS at RWJMS offers an MS in Clinical and Translational Sciences, a Master of Biomedical Sciences and an MS in Biomedical Sciences programs. Dual degree options are available for the MD PhD, the MD MS CTS and the PharmD PhD.
• The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ), the State's only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center manages close to 100,000 patient visits each year and its network hospitals across New Jersey treat one-third of New Jersey's cancer patients.
• The Robert Wood Johnson Medical Group (RWJMG), the medical school's multi-specialty group practice, is the largest in New Jersey, with more than 500 physicians providing care in 200 specialties. RWJMG physicians provide clinical care at numerous hospitals and ambulatory care sites throughout the state. More than one million patient visits and medical procedures are performed annually.
• RWJMS received $97,411 million in research grant awards in FY 2011. Of this amount, $44.8 million was from the National Institutes of Health.
• In 2012, the Eric B. Chandler Health Center, a federally qualified health center owned by the medical school, had more than 55,000 patient visits. It is the only family health center of its kind in New Jersey that is supported by a medical school. The center provides a variety of medical and social services at a single site regardless of patients' ability to pay.

History

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School was formed in 1961 as Rutgers Medical School with a planning grant from the Kellogg Foundation. In the fall of 1963, the first faculty members joined the school and the first class of 16 students entered in September 1966. At the end of two years of instruction, students transferred to other four-year schools to complete their medical education.

Four years later, Rutgers Medical School was organizationally united with the New Jersey Medical School in Newark and the New Jersey Dental School to form the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (CMDNJ). In 1972 for the first time, 32 students began their third and fourth years. The first doctor of medicine degrees were conferred in June 1974.

In 1977 an affiliation agreement was signed with Middlesex General Hospital (now Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital) in New Brunswick establishing it as the primary teaching hospital of Rutgers Medical School and construction began on the Medical Education Building (MEB) adjacent to the Hospital. These events served as catalysts for a dramatic expansion of the school's clinical training capabilities.

In 1980, the Board of Trustees of CMDNJ established a second clinical campus of the medical school in Camden with Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center, (now Cooper University Hospital) a 500-bed facility, as the principal teaching hospital. Students began clinical rotations on this campus on August 1, 1983.

The first doctoral degrees in biomedical sciences in the jointly administered program between CMDNJ-Rutgers Medical School and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey were awarded in June 1981. In December 1981, the name of the college was changed from the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).

In January 1986, the President of the University announced that effective July 1, 1986, the UMDNJ-Rutgers Medical School in Piscataway and Middlesex General University Hospital in New Brunswick would be renamed UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

Major construction projects within the last decade have greatly enhanced the school's research and clinical facilities in Piscataway/New Brunswick. In January 1995, the Clinical Academic Building (CAB) was opened in New Brunswick. The CAB, a 225,000 square foot facility, is the premier location for the patient care activities of Robert Wood Johnson University Medical Group (UMG), the multi-specialty group practice of Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The CAB provides space for outpatient activities, state-of-the-art research and service laboratories, academic offices and support programs.

In 1997, the 75,000-square foot Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ) opened its doors. CINJ houses adult and pediatric ambulatory services, research laboratories, treatment and telecommunications technology, and administrative and support staff. In 2004, a 140,000-square foot addition was completed. This state-of-the-art facility is equipped to conduct world class research and provide new treatments and experimental trials for patients who have been unsuccessful with conventional therapies or for whom there is no standard treatment. A 140,000 sq. ft. addition to the center was opened in 2004, tripling the facilities size and allowing more space for research and an additional 30,000 patient visits each year.

In October 2003, the school opened and dedicated the RWJMS Research Building in Piscataway. Twenty-seven state-of-the-art scientific laboratories for scientists in five departments occupy 90,000-square feet of the 120,000-square-foot building. In form and function, the building's collaborative environment, including linked laboratories and inviting common areas, is designed to hasten basic science discoveries from bench to bedside. A core imaging suite, housing interdepartmental instruments and a state-of-the-art, core nuclear magnetic resonance facility is also housed within the RWJMS Research Building.

Construction of the Child Health Institute of New Jersey was completed in 2005, linking, both physically and programmatically, the medical school and the Bristol-Myers-Squibb Children's Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital. A comprehensive biomedical research and pediatric care center, it serves as the cornerstone of the children's academic campus of the medical school, forging the scientific and clinical programs at the Institute with hospital based programs. In addition, the Department of Pediatrics occupies the first and second floors at the institute, housing academic offices in the department as well as an 11,000 sq. ft. clinical area where more than 20,000 patients are seen on an annual basis.

In May 2004, the State of New Jersey took a historic step for national medical research by creating the first state-supported stem cell research institute. Funded through a public-private partnership, the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey is operated jointly by the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Research is conducted at several facilities at the two universities.

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Degree Programs :

Medicine

Video Presentation

Robert Wood Johnson Medical School 2012 Scholarship Gala

Faculty administrators, the alumni association president and four students who received Gala Scholarships as a result of the Inaugural 2011 Gala talk about the importance of scholarships for medical students.