Progress continues on preparation for the new Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, scheduled to open in the Fall of 2012 in Camden, NJ. The four-year allopathic medical school is being created now to address the significant shortages of both primary care physicians and specialists in New Jersey in the future. The state has a longstanding problem of graduating fewer doctors than needed, ranking 33rd in medical school graduates per capita.
Committees for the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University are rigorously working to set the standards of the medical school including curriculum, faculty policy, admissions criteria, educational resources, affiliations with other health institutions, and overall campus setting. A national search is currently underway for the first Dean of the new medical school.
This is a prestigious and coveted post – one of less-than-a-handful of new medical school Dean posts created nationally in the last decade.
Additionally, the medical school received its first large donation to create the medical student scholarship fund. Dr. Marque Allen, a team physician for the San Antonio Spurs (and a Rowan alumnus) has put forward $100,000 to create a scholarship fund that will bestow its first benefits to the founding class.
The medical school will become an economic driver for New Jersey, creating at least $3 in economic activity for every dollar spent. Both the health – and the economy – of New Jersey will be much improved in the decades ahead.