Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University Accepting Applications for Inaugural Class to Begin in July

Hackensack Meridian Health Board establishes $100 million endowment fund for scholarships to support medical education

The Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University is proud to announce it is accepting applications for its first class to begin in July at the Clifton and Nutley campus located 12 miles from Manhattan, the first private medical school to open in New Jersey in many decades.

"Dynamic changes in health care require a new approach to medical education and we are thrilled to announce that we are now accepting applications from so many talented and high achieving students," said Robert C. Garrett, co-CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health.

Additionally, the Hackensack Meridian Health Board of Trustees recently voted to establish a $100 million endowment fund for scholarships to the school, fulfilling a high priority to ensure top students can afford a medical education, Garrett said.

The first class of 55 students will begin July 9, 2018 in the new school that aims to address the shortage of physicians in New Jersey. Nearly 1,000 applications have already been received. Thousands of prospective students are expected to apply.

The school will forge a new path in medical education to address profound changes which have resulted in more community-based healthcare and an increased focus on wellness and population health.

Along with opening the School of Medicine, Seton Hall University will relocate its College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences to create an Interprofessional Health Sciences (IHS) campus in Nutley and Clifton this spring, said Mary J. Meehan, Ph.D., interim president of Seton Hall University.

"For many years Seton Hall University has had exemplary programs in science and health education," Meehan said. "These medical students will learn to be doctors in an innovative environment that combines their training, Seton Hall’s nationally recognized programs in nursing and other health-related fields, and access to Hackensack Meridian Health’s broad network."

Students will train in a number of Hackensack Meridian Health’s 16 hospitals, four of which are among the top 10 in New Jersey – including the No. 1 ranked Hackensack University Medical Center, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Research shows that physicians often practice where they train which would help the state ease a shortage of an estimated 3,000 doctors in New Jersey by 2020.

Additionally, the innovative curriculum will help future physicians navigate major changes in health care that are underway in the United States including the transition to value-based care in which physicians and hospitals are paid to keep people well. It’s a major shift from fee-for-service medicine in which providers are paid for each treatment and procedure.

The strategy is essential to improve outcomes and lower the cost of care as the nation faces an epidemic of diabetes and other chronic disease, which is costly and in many cases preventable. Even though the U.S. spends far more than virtually all nations, it lags behind peer nations in all major areas of health, including maternal and infant health and life expectancy. This new approach aims to eliminate disparities in health outcome by closely coordinating care and intervening earlier when problems develop.

"Our goal is to maximize health in all of the communities we serve, a goal best achieved through an interdisciplinary approach based on an understanding that health and wellness, as well as disease and sickness, occur where people live, work and play," said Dr. Bonita Stanton, founding dean of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University. "We are humanizing health care."

Medical students will develop partnerships with families living in stressed communities and work with them to jointly understand and overcome factors that can impede or contribute to well-being, ranging from access to grocery stores to taking advantage of new developments in telemedicine.

The new school is also unique in that it offers a three-year program, one of only a dozen or so in the nation to take this approach which can significantly lower the cost of a medical education.

"We are thrilled to have reached this milestone and are we eager to continue to serve this great mission to enhance medical education in New Jersey," said Joseph Simunovich, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University.

For more information on the application process please go to www.shu.edu/medicine.

About Hackensack Meridian Health

Hackensack Meridian Health is a leading not-for-profit health care organization that is the most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network in New Jersey, offering a complete range of medical services, innovative research and life-enhancing care. Hackensack Meridian Health comprises 16 hospitals, including three academic medical centers, two children's hospitals and nine community hospitals, two rehabilitation hospitals and 450 physician practices and patient care locations including surgery centers, home health services, long-term care and assisted living communities, ambulance services, lifesaving air medical transportation, fitness and wellness centers, rehabilitation centers, and urgent care facilities. Hackensack Meridian Health has 33,000 team members, more than 6,500 physicians and is a distinguished leader in health care philanthropy, committed to the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

The Network's notable distinctions include having one of only five major academic medical centers in the nation to receive Healthgrades America's 50 Best Hospitals Award for five or more consecutive years, four hospitals ranked among the top 10 in New Jersey, including Hackensack University Medical Center, the No. 1 hospital, Jersey Shore University Medical Center at No. 4 and Ocean and Riverview Medical Centers tied at No. 8., as ranked by U.S. News and World Report. Other honors include consistently achieving Magnet® recognition for nursing excellence from the American Nurses Credentialing Center, recipient of the John M. Eisenberg Award for Patient Safety and Quality from The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum, a six-time recipient of Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For," one of the "20 Best Workplaces in Health Care" in the nation, and the number one "Best Place to Work for Women." Hackensack Meridian Health is a member of AllSpire Health Partners, an interstate consortium of leading health systems, to focus on the sharing of best practices in clinical care and achieving efficiencies.

For additional information, please visit www.HackensackMeridianHealth.org.

About Seton Hall University

One of the country’s leading Catholic universities, Seton Hall has been developing students in mind, heart and spirit since 1856. Home to nearly 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and offering more than 90 rigorous academic programs, Seton Hall’s academic excellence has been singled out for distinction by The Princeton Review, U.S. News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek.

Seton Hall embraces students of all religions and prepares them to be exemplary servant leaders and global citizens. In recent years, the University has achieved extraordinary success. Since 2009, it has seen record-breaking undergraduate enrollment growth and an impressive 93-point increase in the average SAT scores of incoming freshmen. In the past decade, Seton Hall students and alumni have received 24 Fulbright Scholarships as well as other prestigious academic honors, including Boren Awards, Pickering Fellowships, Udall Scholarships and a Rhodes Scholarship. In the past five years, the University has invested more than $150 million in new campus buildings and renovations. And in 2015, Seton Hall launched a School of Medicine as well as a College of Communication and the Arts. A founding member of the Big East Conference, the Seton Hall Pirates field 14 NCAA Division I varsity sports teams.

The University’s beautiful main campus is located in suburban South Orange, New Jersey, and is only 14 miles from New York City — offering students a wealth of employment, internship, cultural and entertainment opportunities. Seton Hall’s nationally recognized School of Law is prominently located in downtown Newark. The University’s new Interprofessional Health Sciences (IHS) campus in Clifton and Nutley, N.J. will open in the summer of 2018. The IHS campus will house University’s College of Nursing and School of Health and Medical Sciences and will be co-located with the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine at Seton Hall University.

For more information, visit www.shu.edu.