Richard Jermyn, Dean, Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine

Responsible for nurturing the next generation of healthcare professionals, the Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine is hard at work shaping community-focused professionals who will serve throughout the Garden State. As the largest medical school in the state, the school is keen to instill a community-based approach into its graduates, Dean Richard Jermyn told Invest:. “We have an army of medical students who are ready to serve,” Jermyn said.

How would you characterize the Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine?

We are the largest medical school in New Jersey. We need to get out of the mindset that South Jersey is different from North or Central Jersey, and we are the school that is doing that. Even though we are located in South Jersey, our students are in hospitals throughout the state. I always considered us as the medical school for New Jersey. In our last graduate program, about 57% of our medical students stayed in the state and entered residency programs in New Jersey, which puts us at the forefront of providing physicians for the state. Approximately 52% of our graduates went into primary care, that is, pediatrics, internal medicine, and family medicine. As it relates to what makes us different, most medical students’ traditional allopathic medical school training focuses on diseases, which is important; however, we see things a little bit differently. Our philosophy is mind, body, and spirit. We do not see patients as a disease; we see patients as a person. The reason why osteopathic medicine is the fastest-growing medical profession is that we believe in the whole-person approach. Our mission is to treat the underserved, which is the core of our mission. We are out in vulnerable communities. We believe that you have to serve the communities that you are in. Institutions that fail to do that cease to exist. The best asset that we have is the community that we serve, and the community that we serve is the state of New Jersey.

What is the importance of working closely with the local community?

We are laser-focused on taking care of the most vulnerable patients. We are out in the communities doing a necessary service that is critical to the state of New Jersey. It is a service that not everyone can do, mostly because it may not be their mission. We have an army of medical students who are ready to serve. We have this manpower that came to this medical school to work closely with the local community. Even students from other states are coming in to work on this mission, and those out-of-state students end up staying in our region because they love the mission. They end up getting residencies as well. This is what our data shows. 

What key areas of research are happening at the School of Medicine?

At the School of Medicine, there are three tiers of research: basic science research, clinical research, and translational research. Most medical schools focus on basic science research, and we do as well. But where we have grown is in our clinical research. Currently, our clinical research is bridging our translational research, so we are bringing our clinicians together with our basic scientists. We have the Translational Bioscience School, which houses this connection between basic science and clinical. In it, the students have access to and can get into research. With every research project, we aim to connect students to them. This allows students to get better residency outcomes. It is a win-win for all. 

Our core mission is excellence in research, patient care, and education. Each of these categories makes us who we are today. We have four major institutes that align with our vision. We have Cares, which is an institute revolving around children who have suffered physical and sexual abuse. We have the New Jersey Center for Successful Aging, which is doing groundbreaking research on Alzheimer’s. We have an institute focused on neuromuscular diseases, which also houses our addiction program. Finally, we have Risen, which is our institute for special needs and is focused on people with physical and intellectual disabilities. We provide this work for the community. 

What is your outlook for the school of medicine and the industry in the near term?

Our No. 1 focus will be expanding and working with virtual technologies and AI. Many people are threatened by these developments, but we are not at all. We are building a virtual reality lab. I recently wrote grants to explore how virtual reality can enhance education. I believe that one of the challenges that we have as a medical school is that as students go through the process, we lose empathy. I believe that virtual reality training and putting people in areas that are stigmatized can help the different parts of our brain to take the stigma out of disease. It is not okay anymore to look at patients as a disease. We need to bring the person back to the equation. We need to use technology to bridge the gap and make it easier for our students. I believe that technology can help bring empathy back. This is what we are interested in seeing. Learners are all different, but we teach them all in the same way. We are looking at how to use this technology to educate people and light the dopamine part of their brain up, which will make them want to learn. We have to do this. 

Additionally, there is so much to teach at medical school, yet we are still looking at the curriculum like we did years ago. We are currently in our curriculum renewal process. I am excited about exploring different methods for how our students learn. 

What are some ways to mitigate student burnout?

If anyone knew what they were getting into when they entered medical school, they would not do it. We take the smartest, those who graduated top of their undergraduate class, and then come to medical school, which is a different animal. There is no way to really prepare someone. It takes a passionate person to do this. When you lose the passion and the empathy during this process, we have to fix that. What has been helpful to us is our community outreach program and going into our vulnerable communities. The students who go out into the community to pull real-world data from residents report that this is often their best experience in medical school. We will be adding much more of this into our curriculum. 

Burnout is a big deal in the medical field all around, so we need to add joy to what we do every day. The joy will maintain our empathy. This is our challenge. Our community involvement is one way to tackle this, but we need to do more. There are a lot of ideas geared toward this challenge.