"New Jersey is one of the most diverse states in America — and one of the most unequal. Rutgers RWJ trains physicians who understand that the wealth of Princeton and the poverty of Trenton are separated by fifteen miles and decades of policy failure."
"Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and the surrounding New Brunswick community are a microcosm of New Jersey's health complexity — academic medicine, immigrant communities, and safety-net care all in one setting."
"A 42-year-old Portuguese-speaking Brazilian immigrant presents to your clinic with diabetes poorly controlled over the past year. She recently lost her job and her insurance. She is reluctant to use the emergency room and doesn't know what options exist. How do you approach her care and what systemic issues does this case reflect?"
Practice this scenario with AI →Brazilian, Dominican, and Indian communities have distinct health profiles and barriers.
NJ's inequality is more extreme than most states and directly shapes clinical training at RWJ.
RWJ's academic medical center model requires specific knowledge of collaborative care in complex academic settings.
cancer care ethics and NCI-designated center context appear in station scenarios.
"In 14 years of examining I have never failed a candidate for giving the 'wrong' answer. I have failed candidates for how they treated the person in the room with them."
NJ is home to the largest Brazilian community on the East Coast — concentrated in New Brunswick, Newark, and the Ironbound district. Health literacy in Portuguese and cultural humility are clinically essential.
NJ's Indian-American community is one of the largest in the US; diabetes rates, cardiovascular risk, and cultural norms around preventive care are relevant.
Know the Trenton-Princeton juxtaposition specifically: Trenton is the state capital, one of NJ's most distressed cities, 15 miles from Princeton — one of the wealthiest zip codes in the country.
NJ FamilyCare is NJ's Medicaid program; know its eligibility thresholds and what happens when someone loses employer-sponsored insurance.
Know that NJ has its own individual mandate (state-level, since the federal one was zeroed out) and what this means for coverage rates.
Practice scenarios involving insurance transitions — loss of job-based coverage, COBRA, marketplace plans — because these transitions are the most common access crisis in primary care.
Rutgers Cancer Institute is NJ's only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center — affiliated with RWJ. Know what this means: access to clinical trials, multidisciplinary teams, translational research programs.
Cancer clinical trial enrollment equity is a growing station topic — know that trial participants skew white and affluent, and why equitable enrollment matters.
Practice the COI analysis: what happens when an oncologist is also a principal investigator on a trial their patient might enroll in?
My station was about a Brazilian patient who didn't know she could access care after losing her job insurance. I needed to know NJ FamilyCare, the marketplace options, and how to explain them in a clinical encounter. Know NJ's coverage landscape.
Rutgers RWJ felt like a real academic center — the stations included a research ethics scenario about a trial involving low-income cancer patients. Know the equity issues in clinical trial enrollment and the ethics of PI/clinician dual roles.
New Brunswick came up specifically — they wanted to know that I knew about the Brazilian community, the immigrant health challenges, and the fact that this is both a diverse city and an academic medical center environment. Know the place.