The First 50 Years

Fifty years old, New Jersey Medical School has firmly established its place on the map of the state—and the country. The first medical school to be founded in New Jersey, its launching was heralded throughout the state, which had long needed a program to educate physicians with strong ties to New Jersey who would likely stay in the Garden State to practice. Among its founders were leaders at the Jersey City Medical Center, Seton Hall University and the Archdiocese of Newark.

Established in 1954 as Seton Hall College of Medicine and Dentistry, located in Jersey City, the school opened its doors to its first class of 80 students in 1956. There was a top-notch pool of excellent New Jersey applicants who vied to be among that charter class; and faculty were reputed to be exceptionally dedicated to the tough undertaking of launching a first-rate medical school where none had existed before. On June 4, 1960, the charter class graduated, becoming the very first MDs to earn their degrees in New Jersey, where most remained to practice.

A decade later, the state purchased the school for $4 million. In May 1965, it was renamed the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry (NJCMD). In 1968, when state officials were considering relocating the school to Newark, federal, state and local government leaders and representatives of the Newark community met to work out the historic social contract called the Newark Agreements, which spelled out the college’s responsibilities to the city. One result was the establishment of the Board of Concerned Citizens, an advisory group that remains active to this day. On July 1, 1968, the move to Newark was begun.

That month, the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry assumed operation of Newark City Hospital and renamed it Harrison S. Martland Hospital, after the Newark native who served as the hospital’s pathologist for 45 years and the Essex County Medical Examiner. Martland, a renowned scientist, made several remarkable discoveries. He determined that minute traces of radioactivity contained in luminous paint had caused the deaths of watch dial painters employed at U.S. Radium Corporation in Orange, NJ.

Martland Hospital became the school’s principal teaching facility. The school also established strong ties with the 950-bed East Orange Veterans Administration Medical Center. According to an article celebrating the 40th anniversary of the medical school, published 10 years ago in New Jersey Medicine, President Lyndon B. Johnson facilitated this relationship by instructing that the facility be placed at the complete disposal of the medical school.

In September 1969, the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry completed its move to Newark; and on June 16, 1970, the state passed the Medical and Dental Education Act, establishing the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (CMDNJ). The new entity merged the previous New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, which included New Jersey Medical School, New Jersey Dental School and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, with Rutgers Medical School.

July 6, 1971 marked the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Newark campus. The first class to begin its studies in Newark was composed of 113 students—28 of them minorities. Construction of the Medical Sciences Building (MSB) began in June 1973, and in September 1977, NJMS moved into its new quarters, featuring 606,000 square feet of classrooms, research laboratories and faculty space. In January 1979, College Hospital (now called UMDNJ–The University Hospital) opened, replacing Martland Hospital.

Since that time, NJMS has made rapid progress. Though young in comparison with most American medical schools, it is quickly moving forward in the area of research funding. Federal awards have increased between FY’03 and FY’04 by more than $15 million. The Newark campus is in the midst of an enormous capital building construction program, and will soon feature a major cancer center and the first UMDNJ housing for students.

Since its inception, New Jersey Medical School has graduated more than 4,500 physicians. Most have remained in the state. The school and its alumni have vastly improved health care accessibility and quality in New Jersey, particularly in Newark and surrounding Essex County.

Along the way, New Jersey Medical School has achieved national recognition for some of its many accomplishments. High on the list is winning the AAMC’s first award for community service in 1994. Among the others:

• the 1984 founding of an internationally recognized liver center by Carroll Leevy, MD, world-renowned liver disease expert and the school’s only surviving founding father;

• the invention by NJMS alumnus Frederick Buechel, an orthopedic surgeon and faculty member of the school, and NJIT professor Michael Pappas, of the first prosthetic knee joint to receive FDA approval;

• the research of longtime faculty member Oscar Auerbach, which formed the basis of the surgeon general’s report in the 1960s on smoking and health and led to the 1965 warning on cigarette packages: “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Health;”

• the identification of the first case of pediatric AIDS in the world by 1971 alumnus and professor of pediatrics James Oleske in the early 1980s; and

• 19 NJMS faculty members earned spots on Castle Connolly’s “2004 America’s Top Doctors” list, signifying their stellar reputations among other physicians.