Not long after, in 1965, the state of New Jersey took the reins-and I don’t mean they performed a dramatic CPR rescue, but it was almost as heroic. The college was renamed the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry and shifted house right here to Newark. With the Medical and Dental Education Act of 1970, things got really interesting: a merger with a budding two-year program at Rutgers and-presto!-a brand-new institution under a single board. Suddenly, the New Jersey Medical School was in the big leagues, the first and oldest med school in the Garden State.
Fast forward to 1981: achievements piling up, the school became part of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-try fitting that title on a business card! But wait, there’s another twist. In 2013, after almost 60 years of expansions, mergers, and mouthful names, NJMS became part of Rutgers University, settling into its present form as the flagship of Rutgers Health.
Don’t forget, right on this very campus sits University Hospital-home to the state’s most bustling trauma center, a place where quick thinking is as routine as morning coffee. They’re famous for liver transplants, stroke care, brain tumor programs, and even a center for bloodless surgery-yes, really! With over 500 residents in 18 programs, this is where tomorrow’s doctors get their real-world crash course.
Names like Pandey, Lourenco, and Schwartz once strolled these halls-and let’s not leave out the classic overachiever, Dr. Azzariti, now a state assemblyman. In short, NJMS has provided diagnoses, discoveries, and maybe the occasional bad cafeteria meal-hey, even med schools need a little comic relief. So hats off to the oldest med school in New Jersey-saving lives, making history, and probably pulling a few all-nighters along the way!
