Rutgers Health-New Jersey Medical School Program

Program Identity & Fit

This is a long-established, academically rigorous university-based PM&R program built around the nation's premier rehabilitation network - Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (SCI and TBI Model Systems designations) - alongside a Level 1 trauma center (University Hospital), multiple VA sites, Children's Specialized Hospital, and specialty electives at Hospital for Special Surgery and a private regenerative/sports medicine practice. A formal 18-month master didactic curriculum, dedicated research course, and mandatory scholarly project with named faculty mentors reflect a structured commitment to both broad clinical exposure (SCI, TBI, pediatrics, sports, interventional spine, electrodiagnostics, cancer rehab) and academic output, reinforced by an ACGME commendation for scholarly activity and board outcomes. The program supports the largest PM&R fellowship offering in the country (SCI, TBI, pediatric rehab, cancer rehab, stroke, research tracks) and graduates routinely place into competitive subspecialty fellowships, signaling a subspecialization-oriented culture even though the residency itself is not purely research-track. Embedded within Rutgers NJMS's mission-driven, underserved-Newark identity, the program appears to value residents who can move fluidly across high-acuity inpatient neurorehabilitation, procedural/interventional musculoskeletal work, and structured research participation.