PULSE Celebrating Our Alumni

Meet Humaira Chaudhry, MD’05, one of three alumni profiled in this special issue of Pulse magazine. We are proud of our graduates and all they have accomplished!

3 Pillars of Weight Management

At NJMS’s new center, a multidisciplinary group teams up to help patients combat obesity and live healthier lives.

Repairing Faces with Groundbreaking Surgery

Two patients with severe facial nerve damage despaired that they’d ever find effective treatment. But they got the help they needed at NJMS.

A Message from the Dean

As Pulse magazine marks its twentieth year in publication, it seems appropriate to look back at the many contributions it has made here at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. Since the start of the century, our flagship publication has told the stories of our faculty, students, and staff who make NJMS such a special place. Thank you to the editors and writers who work diligently to produce this stellar publication.

Our most important mission has always been to educate physicians. Each year, some 170 new NJMS graduates go on to provide health care across the country. Even against the greatest odds, COVID-19 for one, our students continued to learn medicine and to graduate.

We continue to provide excellent health care to everyone who comes through our doors as well. In this issue you’ll read about two patients whose lives were transformed at NJMS. One, whose constant excruciating pain drove him to thoughts of suicide, found total relief. Another, whose face was partially paralyzed, can speak clearly and smile again. While you’re reading this issue of Pulse, be sure to also read about:

• How our new weight management center combines science-based medicine with individualized obesity treatment, resulting in improved health outcomes

• A group of NJMS student volunteers who mentor Newark high school students, teaching them the basics of suturing while increasing their awareness of health care careers

• Researcher Yuan-Xiang Tao, MSc, PhD, MD, who has developed a compound with the potential to help millions of people with chronic neuropathic pain

As our relationships with University Hospital and our other clinical and educational partners continue to thrive and grow, we look forward to a bright future for our school. Working closely with the community, we are very involved in improving the lives of the residents we serve. We look forward to seeing our many achievements highlighted in this wonderful magazine.

DEAN

Robert L. Johnson, MD, FAAP’72

The Sharon and Joseph L. Muscarelle

Endowed Dean, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

LaCarla Donaldson

Manager, Marketing and Communications

SENIOR EDITOR

Mary Ann Littell

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Ty Baldwin

Merry Sue Baum

Amanda Castleman

Katherine Gustafson

Nancy A. Ruhling

Lina Zeldovich

DESIGN

Sherer Graphic Design

PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

Keith B. Bratcher, Jr.

John O’Boyle

KEEP IN TOUCH

Pulse is published twice a year by Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. We welcome letters and suggestions for future articles.

Send all correspondence to: Marketing and Communications Rutgers New Jersey Medical School ADMC Building 11, Suite 1110 30 Bergen Street Newark, NJ 07107 or via email to: njmsmarketing@njms.rutgers.edu

ON THE COVER njms.rutgers.edu

Pulse celebrates 20 years of excellence in clinical care, education, research, and community service..

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A Successful Match Day for COVID-Era Students

Match Day this year was met with usual fanfare as NJMS students learned which residency programs they will attend and participated in events to mark the occasion. Ninety-six percent of NJMS’s 169 graduating students matched, beating out the national average of 93.7 percent.

A Successful Match Day for COVID-Era Students

Of those who matched, 51 will remain in New Jersey, 44 of whom will do residencies at either NJMS or Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Others will scatter across the country to hospitals such as UC Davis Medical Center, New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Duke University Hospital, Stanford Medical Center, and Mount Sinai Hospital.

This is the first matching class that completed almost all its medical education during the pandemic. The students who matched started medical school the semester before COVID-19 transformed medical education, forcing a switch to remote learning and prompting an emphasis on telemedicine.