Founding Director

Edward Viner, MD, graduated from Harvard College, Cum Laude, and received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine, followed by a two year fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

In 1975, Dr. Viner started the first Hospice program in the Philadelphia region, which involvement stemmed from his experience as a critically ill patient in 1972. He has also contributed to the effort to improve end of life care, nationally, which led to an invitation to testify before the House Select Committee on Aging, in 1985.

In 1987, Dr. Viner became Chief of Medicine at Cooper University Hospital, a position he held for twenty years, during which time he built an academic Department of Medicine and started Cooper’s suburban practice network. Under his leadership, Cooper was the first Philadelphia regional health system to adopt a hospitalist system for the care of inpatients. 

Throughout his years at Cooper, Dr. Viner worked tenaciously towards the creation of a new medical school, and it is a source of great pride to him that the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) has become the nation’s 135th allopathic medical school.

Dr. Viner has been a member of the Board of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. He has regularly been on numerous regional and nationals lists of Best Doctors, and has been listed in Who’s Who in America. In 1984, he received the Philadelphia Caring Award, stemming from his leadership role in developing Hospice Care.

He received Laureateship from the American College of Physicians in 2003and subsequently was elected to Mastership in the College. In 2009, he was named Honorary First Dean of Cooper Medical school of Rowan University (CMSRU). In June, 2012, Dr. Viner received the prestigious Strittmatter Award from the Philadelphia County Medical society for his career-long contributions to medicine. In 2015, CMSRU presented Dr. Viner with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Humanism in Medicine, “for a lifetime of exemplary humanistic patient care and dedication to medical education."

Associate Director

Lawrence Weisberg, MD, MACP, FASN, received his AB degree from Washington University in St. Louis, and his MD degree with honors from Temple University School of Medicine, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and a fellowship in Nephrology at the same institution.

In 1987, he joined the nephrology division of Cooper University Health Care (CUHC), and the faculty of the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Camden, where he rose to Professor of Medicine in 2002. In 2001, he was appointed head of the division of nephrology at CUHC, a position he continues to hold. He served as Deputy Chief of the Department of Medicine of Cooper University Health Care from 2007 to 2014.

Dr. Weisberg has received numerous teaching awards in his career, among them the inaugural Sol Sherry, MD, Teaching Award. He was elected to the UMDNJ Stuart D. Cook Master Educators Guild in 2004. Over the past 20 years, he has continuously been recognized as a “top doc” by Philadelphia Magazine, New Jersey Monthly Magazine and South Jersey Magazine, and he was the regional National Kidney Foundation’s Physician Honoree in 2011.

Dr. Weisberg was creator and course director of the Literature and Medicine course for third and fourth year medical students at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He served as Assistant Dean for Curriculum at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU) from 2011 to 2019.

Senior Associate Dean for Professional Formation & Health Humanities

Douglas Reifler, MD, is a primary care general internist originally from Evanston, Illinois, with a strong interest in medical humanities and humanism in medicine. After graduating from Harvard College he worked as a medical editor, including time in the New York offices of Scientific American. He earned his MD from the University of California, San Diego, then returned to Chicago for residency in primary care internal medicine and fellowship in general internal medicine, both at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. His extensive experience in medical education includes serving as Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Medical Education at Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago, IL, and most recently as Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Medical Humanities at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine of Temple University.

As Cooper Medical School of Rowan University (CMSRU)’s new Senior Associate Dean for Professional Formation and Medical Humanities he works with the CMSRU Center for Humanism to further their existing curricular and extracurricular efforts, and he practices clinically in primary care internal medicine.