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News Briefs for Faculty of CMSRU
February 2012
In This Issue
Breaking News!
Faculty Assembly
P.U.L.S.E Plans 2nd Year
Active Learning Rooms
Scholar's Workshop
Medical Library Seeks Input
CMSRU Breaking News! 
South Jersey Research University on the Horizon

At a news conference on Wednesday, January 25, NJ Governor Chris Christie endorsed the final recommendations of the UMDNJ Advisory Committee. The recommendations include the full integration of Rutgers-Camden and Rowan University into a broader institution, known as Rowan University and based in Glassboro and Camden. This new institution would be positioned for public research university status. While the timing is unclear, the news is being viewed as overwhelmingly positive for CMSRU.  

 

"This is good for the region and good for our medical school," says Paul Katz, MD, CMSRU Founding Dean.  Click HERE to read the committee's full report.  

 

CMSRU Supports "Joining Forces" Initiative

CMSRU was one 

of more than 100 medical schools from throughout the country to join with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) in pledging to improve the health of our nation's veterans, service members and their families through the "Joining Forces" initiative. Paul Katz, MD, Founding Dean of CMSRU, participated in a special program in Richmond, VA, to announce the initiative. The event was hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.  Click HERE to read more about "Joining Forces."  

   

CMSRU Earns Middle States Accreditation

After an extensive review, The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is now including the medical doctor (MD) degree within the scope of Rowan University's Institutional Accreditation.  

 

"This is another significant achievement for CMSRU as we gear up to welcome our inaugural class of medical students in August," said Paul Katz, MD, Founding Dean. 

 

The accreditation process is a voluntary, self-regulatory, peer review process. The Middle States Commission on Higher Education is an institutional accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and the Council for Higher Education Association.

 

How Camden Got a Medical School

Inside Jersey recently published an article detailing the story of how Cooper Medical School of Rowan University was created and how it will benefit the future of medicine in Camden and New Jersey. Paul Katz, MD, Founding Dean of CMSRU, was among the many people who were interviewed for the in-depth feature.Click HERE to read the complete article.

 

New Service to Help Students with Housing

CMSRU is now partnered with Places4Students.com - a service which allows students to search for housing accommodations, find roommates or post student sublets for FREE. 


If you or someone you know owns a rental property in Philadelphia or South Jersey, please consider making it available for our students to rent through Places4Students.com. To register your property, go to the Landlord section on the home page of Places4Students.com and click the "Register Now" button. Feel free to contact [email protected] or 1-866-766-0767, should you require more information.

 

 Local Media Interest in CMSRU Continues

The Philadelphia Business Journal and the Gloucester County Times recently published articles about the admissions' process and prospective inaugural class at CMSRU. The articles describe the demographics of the applicants and the students selected for interviews. A description of CMSRU's unique interview process is also included. Paul Katz, MD, Founding Dean of CMSRU, explained how our interview process differs from the traditional processes medical schools have used for decades.

Dr. Katz also emphasized CMSRU's goal to admit students who match the school's mission - "providing humanistic education in the art and science of medicine" and its core values that include service to the community, civic responsibility and patient advocacy.  

 

To read the Philadelphia Business Journal article, click HERE.  

 

To read the Gloucester County Times article, click HERE.   

 


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Annette C. Reboli, MD, Vice Dean (left), and Paul Katz, MD, Founding Dean (right), deliver prizes to Rob Somer, MD, who won our newsletter naming contest with "Making the Rounds." Congratulations Dr. Somer!
 
Making the Rounds




Focus on Faculty:  CMSRU's Faculty Assembly 

James K. Aikins, MD
Mark J. Pello, MD
Perry J. Weinstock, MD

Faculty involvement in decision making at an institution of higher learning is generally accepted as having a positive effect on the function of that institution.Being a brand

new school, CMSRU has the ability to embrace faculty opinion and participation organically through the establishment of our Faculty Assembly.

 

The full Faculty Assembly will meet at least twice annually to discuss and establish medical school policies and practices that are in the purview of the faculty; to advise the CMSRU administration on matters related to teaching and research; and to review the objectives of the educational program. All active committees of CMSRU will have faculty representation with half of the membership appointed by the dean and half elected by the faculty. Committee elections are being held on an ongoing basis as committees are strategically "stood up." Watch for election emails from Annette C. Reboli, MD, Vice Dean of CMSRU.

 

In 2011, CMSRU faculty elected officers of the Faculty Assembly. Perry J. Weinstock, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine and Head, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Director of Clinical Cardiology at Cooper was named president; Mark J. Pello, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery and Head, Division of Colorectal Surgery at Cooper was named Vice President; and James K. Aikins, Jr., MD, Associate Professor of Ob/Gyn and Director of Research for Cooper's Division of Gynecologic Oncology, was named Secretary.

 

"Drs. Weinstock, Pello and Aikins are renowned for their commitment to medical education, as well for their clinical expertise," said Dr. Reboli. "They will do an excellent job in leading the Faculty Assembly and helping faculty to become engaged in medical school activities."     

Focus on Community: P.U.L.S.E.

Final plans for CMSRU's Premedical Urban Summer Enrichment Program (P.U.L.S.E.), a six-week academic enrichment program for college undergraduates interested in healthcare professions, are well underway. The program, developed by the Office of Multicultural, Community and Special Academic Programs, provides academic, clinical, research and service learning opportunities with a focus on urban health needs. Now in its second year, P.U.L.S.E. provides exposure to medical professions to those groups traditionally under-represented in the field, as well as those from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.  

  

Due to the success of last year's P.U.L.S.E. program, it will expand from four to six weeks this year to allow ample time for students to complete their research projects. Some pathophysiology curriculum is also being added as a complement to the existing microbiology curriculum. P.U.L.S.E. will be held at Cooper, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. from May 14 to June 22. "There are opportunities for CMSRU faculty to be involved and I encourage you to participate in this rewarding endeavor," says Jocelyn Mitchell-Williams, MD, P.U.L.S.E. Program Director and Associate Dean for Multicultural and Community Affairs. "We are looking for guest speakers to talk about career choices and their areas of expertise. And we are in need of research projects on which our P.U.L.S.E. students can work."

 

For more information on P.U.L.S.E., click HERE. Faculty interested in participating please contact Dr. Mitchell-Williams at [email protected], or by calling 856-361-2800.

 

 

Construction Update: Active Learning Rooms - Home Base for Students   

Crafting the learning spaces for our new building was an exciting endeavor! Rather than fitting our innovative curriculum into a pre-planned or existing building, we created a new building that was fully driven by the new curriculum. Some of our favorite spaces to plan were the Active Learning Rooms - a total of twenty-five located on two floors in the building. These spaces are designed to be the "home" for our students for the first two years of school. Driven by our case-based curriculum, which involves primarily small-group discussion and self-directed learning, we designed spaces where students could collaborate in small groups - using either faculty-facilitated discussions or student-driven sessions. Up to eight students will be assigned to each room, which will be equipped with all the latest tools and technologies. 

 

Each room will have individually-assigned desks and storage spaces, a flexible conference table area, an exam table, and white boards. Each room will also house a large, 65 inch monitor that will be connected to an iPads as the input interface. It also can be driven by student laptops - all facilitating sharing of information, images, and driving collaborative discussion and learning. A camera will be mounted above the exam table to be used in simulated interview/exam situations, so that immediate review of captured video is possible within the room itself. The room (as well as the entire building) is part of the campus wireless network.  

Focus on Curriculum:  Scholar's Workshop 

 

How did mercury come to be a standard therapy for syphilis - and who figured out that the treatment was worse than the disease? Why did postmenopausal women in the 1960's believe that estrogen was the antidote to aging - and what changed our minds?  

 

The Scholar's Workshop, a continuous four-year course, is the setting in which CMSRU students will develop critical thinking skills and proficiency to answer questions such as these, and more. In this course, students will learn to use a set of enduring tools that will allow them to critically assess historical advances and misconceptions in medicine, understand the methodology and ethics of scientific inquiry, use the best available evidence to help guide treatment decisions, and design systems to optimize the delivery of care to patients.

 

Faculty will guide students - working in teams - though a series of hands-on projects aimed at developing their proficiency with the toolkit, as well as with their team-building, teamwork, management and leadership skills. The projects are designed to align with other aspects of the curriculum, which is vertically-integrated and organ-based. This vertical integration reinforces what students learn about health and disease at a molecular and cellular level with what they see in patients - both "simulated" (standardized patients) and in their clinical activities in ambulatory and inpatient settings.

 

Students In the third and fourth year, working with faculty mentors, will develop novel projects of original research in basic science, clinical medicine, or disciplines of performance improvement, patient safety, public health or systems engineering. They will present completed projects to the school community as a capstone at the end of their fourth year. 

Help Medical Library Choose Collections

By now, you should have received an email from Barbara Miller, Library Director, with the subject line "Help Select Cooper Library Journals." As the library staff finalizes plans for the new CMSRU Medical Library, they are welcoming input from faculty to determine the best resources to include in their collection.   

 

"We are committed to maintaining the same level of resources that we currently have through UMDNJ, so please tell us what you rely on and what, if anything, you would like to see added," says Ms. Miller.  "We want to provide the best collection possible for our faculty and students and now is the time to make decisions on what to include."

 

Please email suggestions to Barbara Miller at  [email protected].


About Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
CMSRU is committed to providing humanistic education in the art and science of medicine within a scientific and scholarly community in which inclusivity, excellence in patient care, innovative teaching, research and service to our community are valued.

Core values include a commitment to diversity, personal mentorship, professionalism, collaboration and mutual respect, civic responsibility, patient advocacy and lifelong learning. 
 
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
Ferry Terminal Building
Two Aquarium Drive, Suite 305 
Camden, New Jersey 08103
856-361-2800

www.rowan.edu/coopermed