Press Release

June 10, 2009
Name: Jerry Carey
Phone: 856-566-6171
Email: careyge@umdnj.edu

UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine to Increase Class Size by 50 Percent

STRATFORD - Citing calls from professional organizations and a looming crisis in the availability of physicians, Dr. Thomas Cavalieri, the Dean of the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine, announced that the medical school has embarked on an ambitious plan to increase student enrollment by 50 percent over the next three years.

“If current trends continue, we will be faced with a dramatic shortage of physicians – particularly in primary care – within the next 15 years,” Cavalieri said. “As the nation’s population grows, and grows older, the demand for health care services will increase exponentially. That demand will be particularly acute in South Jersey where population growth will exceed the state average and the number of residents over the age of 65 could increase by more than one third by the year 2020.”

Planning for this increase began more than a year ago when the school requested approval from the American Osteopathic Association’s Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation to increase class size from the previous limit of 100 students. This year’s incoming class at the UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine will include 120 students.

The Association of American Medical Colleges estimates that, if current trends continue, the nation will have about 159,000 fewer physicians than it needs by the year 2025. A report published two years ago by the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy found that the physician supply in six southern New Jersey counties was below the national average and that a downward trend in physician-to-patient population existed in Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem Counties.

“As the only four-year medical school in southern New Jersey, we’re excited by the opportunity to play a key role in filling the future health care needs of our state,” Cavalieri said. “Nearly half of our graduates are primary care physicians and 55 percent are physicians who practice in New Jersey.”

The UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine is dedicated to providing excellence in medical education, research and health care for New Jersey and the nation. An emphasis on primary health care and community health services reflects the school’s osteopathic philosophy, with centers of excellence that demonstrate its commitment to developing clinically skillful, compassionate and culturally competent physicians from diverse backgrounds, who are prepared to become leaders in their communities.

UMDNJ is the nation's largest free-standing public health sciences university with more than 5,700 students attending the state's three medical schools, its only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and its only school of public health, on five campuses. Annually, there are more than two million patient visits to UMDNJ facilities and faculty at campuses in Newark, New Brunswick/ Piscataway, Scotch Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, a statewide mental health and addiction services network.