The Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine (RowanSOM) will begin admitting students to a second campus in July 2022, sparking a major expansion in medical education for New Jersey.

At 1414 Tanyard Road in Sewell, the campus is located at the Rowan College of South Jersey. The school’s newest expansion was made possible through their collaboration with Rowan University, the Rowan College of South Jersey and Gloucester County.

“On behalf of RowanSOM, I would like to express my gratitude toward our president, Dr. Ali Houshmand and the President of Rowan College of South Jersey, Dr. Fred Keating, for their support of this important initiative,” Dr. Thomas Cavalieri, dean of RowanSOM, said on the RowanSOM website. “The significant milestones in our history will no doubt improve the quality of healthcare in South Jersey.” 

The new location will house the school on the second floor of the 56,000 square-foot Rowan Medicine building with Dr. George Scott, professor of Family Medicine, as associate dean. The additional space will consist of more than a dozen meeting rooms, research laboratories, classrooms that can accommodate more than 140 students, an osteopathic manipulative medicine lab, a medical library, and academic and administrative offices.

“This is an exciting achievement for our school, our university and for medical education in our state,” Dr. Scott said on the RowanSOM website. “We have begun immediately to recruit students from New Jersey and across the country for our inaugural class. With our innovative curriculum, modern facilities and the ability to deliver clinical training in the same building as academic instructors, we offer prospective students an unparalleled medical education experience”.

The second campus will accept 72 first-year medical students who will become familiar with the school’s Problem-Based Learning (PBL) curriculum. With 216 students joining next year’s class, RowanSOM will eventually become the largest medical school in New Jersey.

Problem-Based Learning is used for clinical case presentations to acquire the basic science knowledge needed to understand underlying mechanisms as well as a way for developing crucial clinical reasoning skills. Problem-Based Learning is a student-operated approach to this curriculum. 

The Director of Problem-Based Learning at RowanSOM, Dr. Victor Scali, points to the advantages of this approach in medical education.

“The PBL curriculum is ideal for highly motivated students who prefer self-guided learning rather than traditional lecture based medical school curriculum,” Dr. Scali explained in a statement found on their webpage. “PBL utilizes small classes of eight students, guided by specially trained facilitators. Students learn the foundational basic sciences and clinical medicine by solving real clinical cases. PBL students tend to develop critical thinking skills early in their pre-clerkship years that translate well to bedside clinical training during clerkships and residency training.”

The Rowan University School Osteopathic Medicine was founded in 1976 and was recognized as a part of Rowan University in 2013. RowanSOM provides unmatched opportunities for university students and has indisputably become an elite provider of medical education throughout New Jersey.

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