Looking Ahead and Celebrating Our Success

February 14, 2023

Dear RBHS community, 

There is great excitement and promise for Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (RBHS) in the early days of 2023 as we continue to build one of the best academic health centers in the country. 

This July marks the 10-year anniversary of UMDNJ's integration with Rutgers and the creation of RBHS. We are planning a variety of events that will begin this summer in commemoration of our many accomplishments in the past decade while looking towards the future.  

We continue to execute our strategic plan, “One RBHS: The Way Forward,” which was unveiled in April and will guide our endeavors over the next five years. The Implementation, Monitoring, and Assessment Team (IMAT), under the leadership of co-chairs Shawna Hudson, professor and research division chief at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and Joseph Barone, dean and professor at Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, has begun work on operationalizing and prioritizing the objectives of the plan. RBHS faculty and staff in nine committees are collaborating to advance our missions while fostering our shared values of respect, collaboration, inclusion, excellence, innovation, and accountability within our community.  

I am also looking forward to sharing updates with you on major capital construction projects, including the complete renovation of the Medical Science Building in Newark and the Rutgers Health Building to be constructed in New Brunswick, our first new building during the Rutgers era. 

A few highlights of accomplishments since my last update in August include: 

RBHS research growth remains robust, with preliminary information indicating that, for the first two quarters of the year, we are up from this time last year by 23 percent (nearly $57 million), with more than $298 million in externally sponsored research and program awards. Over $152 million (51%) of total awards are from federal sponsors and, of those, over $99 million from the NIH.  Thanks to our researchers for their innovative work in biomedical and health science research. I would like to especially recognize our largest grant awardee from this cycle, Dr. Iris Udasin from EOSHI and the School of Public Health, who received an 8-year contract for nearly $51 million from the Centers for Disease Control for the “World Trade Center Clinical Center of Excellence” Program. 

Rutgers continues to put patients first and serve as a health care leader in New Jersey. Efforts to enhance professionalism, communication, and provider well-being will be a top priority for the Office of Clinical and Health Affairs this year. In 2022, faculty, staff, and trainees enhanced their skills in emphatic communication, peer support, and psychological safety through formal trainings to best serve our diverse patient population. Our commitment to each other is equally strong. RBHS received a grant to fund a wellbeing support program to expand services for physician peer support and wellbeing for students. 

Of course, health professions education is at the heart of what we do, and we continue to be a competitive choice for our prospective students. This fall, all of our schools hit their enrollment targets, with most seeing an overall increase in applications. In fact, with a recently awarded $1 million HRSA grant for training and simulation equipment, the School of Nursing will be able to expand its class size in the future substantially, to better meet the local and national need for nurses across the health care workforce.  

Strong fundraising is enabling RBHS to better support student need. The RBHS Scholarship Match Campaign for New Jersey Medical School, a year-long effort in 2022 to raise $1 million in scholarship funds that are matched by RBHS resources, ended successfully with the school raising more than $2 million for scholarships. In December, we launched the 2023 RBHS Scholarship Match Campaign in support of scholarships for Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy with the goal of raising $1 million for students. 

What sets RBHS apart, where we find our excellence, is in our people. I thank everyone at RBHS for continuing to work together to provide excellent patient care, educate the next generation of health care providers, and move research forward.   

With appreciation,  

Brian L. Strom, MD, MPH
Chancellor, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences