It has counted among its faculty many of the most distinguished social scientists and health policy researchers in the country, developed a portfolio of research by its influential Divisions and Centers addressing critical issues in health, health care policy and aging, and created highly successful training programs at the pre-doctoral, post-doctoral and undergraduate levels.
By the early 21st century, six of the Institute for Health’s former and current faculty had been elected members of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine), which constituted nearly all Rutgers’ faculty and a substantial proportion of those from New Jersey elected members. The Institute’s core values of faculty excellence, outstanding interdisciplinary research, particularly in research-based solutions to problems in health and health care, and training the next generation of scholars, researchers, and professionals – have helped guide this success in its first thirty-three years.
The Institute will provide an interdisciplinary avenue through which university faculty and students may address issues related to the promotion of health and effective functioning, the development of social policies to prevent illness and disability, and the strengthening of appropriate services in these areas
– Edward J. Bloustein, Rutgers University President (1971-1989)
From its inception, the Institute achieved national distinction through research generated by its interdisciplinary faculty in the social and behavioral sciences along with the clinical, policy and law school faculty from six schools and colleges and more than a dozen departments. These early and continuing accomplishments were undeniably attributed to the Institute’s founding director, David Mechanic, an internationally-known medical sociologist who served as the first dean of the consolidated Faculty of Arts and Sciences shortly after his move to Rutgers in 1979.