Virtua Health and Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, have announced a partnership to create a new academic health system.

An investment of $85 million from Virtua Health will create the Virtua Health College of Medicine & Health Sciences of Rowan University. The college will include the state’s only osteopathic medical school; an expanded nursing and allied health professions school; a new school of translational biomedical engineering and sciences; multiple new research institutes; and aligned clinical practices to improve patient care. The partnership will bring together clinicians and scientists to elevate care delivery, medical innovation, and education, with the first three research institutes to focus on cardiovascular disease, solid organ transplant and regenerative medicine, and primary care. Plans for the system also include the construction of a new facility that will support basic, translational, and clinical research; and efforts to recruit fifty faculty investigators over the next decade.

“The best health systems in the nation partner with great research institutions,” said Rowan University president Ali A. Houshmand. “Virtua Health is one of the leading healthcare providers in the state. To have earned Virtua’s confidence and to be the partner they choose to invest in is tremendous. We’re proud to share Virtua’s values and vision and to see a future where we can make a difference together. This landmark gift and our partnership will transform both institutions.”

“There has never been a more defining moment for our two respected organizations to come together to transform and reimagine the future of health care and the healthcare workforce than right now,” said Virtua Health president and CEO Dennis W. Pullin. “This affiliation will further strengthen our relationship with Rowan so that we can innovate around the training of tomorrow’s physicians and health professionals and the critical research that will impact the future of health care in this community. I am excited about the purposeful things that we will do together and the lasting, here-for-good impact our efforts will have in New Jersey and beyond.”

(Photo credit: Rowan University, used with permission)