Members of the Senate and Assembly Higher Education Committees

Hearing of the Joint Higher Education CommitteesMarch 6, 2012

Testimony from Ellen Townes-Anderson PhD

Professor of Neurology and Neurosciences, NJMS

973-972-7392;

Members of the Senate and Assembly Higher Education Committees:

My name is Ellen Townes-Anderson. I am the President of the Faculty Organization at New Jersey Medical School.

By several measures, one can argue that New Jersey Medical School is the top medical school in our state. NJMS garners the most NIH research dollars, trains the greatest number of residents, medical students, and graduate students, and has the widest diversity of clinical specialties and community-based programs. In Newark we have more state-of-the-art research facilities and a greater breadth of research programs than any of the other schools of higher education.

In general, the leaders of the faculty organization at New Jersey Medical School are supportive of the report of the Governor's Advisory Committee. Today however, I want to identify three matters which need to be addressed by the legislature.

First, the legislature needs to provide adequate resources to reorganize and establish a New Jersey Health Sciences University. Decentralizing the university's administration will result in significant costs to set up new policies, procedures, databases, and offices. While reorganization of the university's administration promises to significantly increase productivity, the cost of planning and carrying out such changes is beyond what current funding can support. The proposed changes will provide many opportunities for improvement, but this transformation must be financially supported.

Second, we welcome the Advisory Committee’s recommendation to maintain University Hospital as a state healthcare facility. However, the hospital also needs resources to sustain and improve its mission and facilities. In addition, it is imperative that the hospital continues as the primary teaching hospital for the NJ medical school. Close alliance between the hospital and the school is essential to the maintenance of outstanding medical education. A future public-private partnership must recognize and promote the teaching and research, as well as the healthcare roles of clinical faculty.

Third, there is a pressing need, first described in the Kean report, to revise state regulations which govern academic institutions. To illustrate, procurement of new equipment can take months because of state bidding protocols. These protocols however, are often unnecessary because of the specialized nature of the needed equipment. While waiting, patients suffer and research and the associated hiring of research personnel is delayed. Do not underestimate the chilling effect onerous procedures and multiple layers of regulation have on productivity.

Members of our faculty believe in New Jersey Medical School and we are eager to work toward further growth and transformation. With your support, be assured that we will work to implement new visions and structures to strengthen the biomedical enterprise in Newark and New Jersey.