This program is ideal for someone who has a strong interest in and commitment to primary care. Beginning in the first semester of the PC3 track, you experience primary care settings and have the opportunity to develop long-term relationships with both faculty and patients in your Patient-Centered Medical Home. You benefit from early mentorship and have specially designed courses to enhance your clinical skills, as well as your understanding of the complex social and public health landscape faced by primary care physicians. You have a faculty director who will provide guidance and support during your program. You save a year of medical school tuition and have a direct pathway to residency training at Cooper University Health Care.

Most of your clinical time is spent at Cooper University Health Care, CMSRU’s primary clinical affiliate. This institution, anchored by Cooper Hospital, has served the citizens of Camden for over 135 years and is committed to providing primary care in Camden and southern New Jersey. Cooper’s commitment to healthcare innovation is demonstrated by the Cooper Urban Health Institute (UHI), a unit with a focus on new models of care, the epidemiology of urban health/disease and the use of unique resources to provide affordable, effective health care in underserved urban health areas.

Starting in the CMSRU class entering in 2026, we will have 3 specialties in PC3: Family Medicine, Pediatrics and Internal Medicine. Persons submitting applications to CMSRU in 2025 will be able to indicate an interest in their secondary application.

• 2 students for Family Medicine
• 2 students for Primary Care Pediatrics
• 4 students for Primary Care Internal Medicine: 2 in a directed pathway to Cooper residency and 2 in a directed pathway to Inspira Residency.

Some fellowships may enhance or complement a primary care physician’s skills and clinical interests.

Below are a sample of such fellowships offered by various academic institutions around the country:

Internal Medicine:

• Academic General Internal Medicine
• Adolescent Medicine
• Diabetes Care
• Geriatrics
• HIV Care
• LGBTQ+ Healthcare
• Obesity Medicine
• Primary Care Addiction Medicine

Pediatrics:

• Academic General Pediatrics
• Adolescent Medicine
• Child Abuse Pediatrics (offered at Cooper University Health Care)
• Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
• Primary Care Sports Medicine
• LGBTQ+ Healthcare
• Weight Management
• Pediatric Addiction Medicine

Family Medicine:

• Obstetrics/Women’s Health
• Addiction Medicine
• Sports Medicine
• Pain Medicine
• Geriatrics
• Adolescent Medicine
• LGBTQ+ Healthcare
• Obesity Medicine
• Community Medicine

If you intend to be solely a subspecialist (e.g., a cardiologist or gastroenterologist), this will not be the track for you. We seek students who are planning to provide direct primary care to patients, as one of the goals of our program is to produce clinicians to address the national primary care physician shortage.

Primary Care physicians trained in Internal Medicine take care of adults (18 and above) and may also practice some general gynecology (e.g., routine pap smears). Family Medicine physicians have training in obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, and certain surgical procedures.

For further information on these two specialties, please see the following websites:

• American Academy of Family Physicians
• American College of Physicians

There is no specific scholarship or financial aid associated with the track. However, participation in the PC3 track allows you to eliminate one year of tuition and fees from your debt. In addition, you start earning a resident physician salary in what would have been your fourth year of medical school; you enter the physician workforce and begin earning a Faculty salary a full year earlier than your colleagues.

All students at CMSRU are eligible for institutional scholarships, but are also encouraged to apply for national or regional funding.

In addition, students may consider applying for scholarships or loan repayment through the National Health Service Corps.

Further details on all funding opportunities are available through the CMSRU Financial Aid Office website.

Our residency programs prepare skilled and dedicated physicians to join the workforce as well as succeed in their Board Certification examinations. You work in multiple settings – not just primary care. Your residency learning occurs on Inpatient wards, in the Emergency Department, as well as in Intensive Care Units. You also have exposure to clinical care in subspecialty clinics and practice primary care in urban settings, as well as in private or suburban clinics.

Click here for information about Cooper's Family Medicine Residency Program

Click here for information about Cooper's Pediatrics Residency Program and the Primary Care Track within the Residency.

Click here for information about Cooper's Internal Medicine Residency Program and the Primary Care Track within the Residency.

The Inspira Medical Center in Vineland serves Cumberland County in the southwest part of New Jersey. Cumberland County is known as the “Garden Spot” in the Garden State and is home to rural communities and many family-owned farms. Residents in the Primary Care Track have additional months of outpatient clinical rotations in each year of residency, which allows them to establish long-term relationships with patients in their community.  Cumberland County, NJ, is a great training location for those interested in Primary Care. It is a federally designated medically underserved area with physician shortages in primary care. Training here exposes residents to real-world health disparities, making their work highly impactful. They see firsthand how access barriers (transportation, socioeconomic status, insurance coverage) affect patient outcomes. Cumberland County has a culturally and linguistically diverse population, including large Hispanic and migrant worker communities. This provides exposure to culturally competent care, chronic disease management, and preventive care in underserved populations. At the same time, due to limited specialty access, primary care physicians in Cumberland often manage complex medical issues independently. Students and residents gain hands-on experience and broaden their clinical skill set earlier.

Inspira has established a strong graduate medical education pipeline that directly supports the development of primary care physicians for Cumberland County and surrounding underserved communities. The Inspira Internal Medicine Residency offers a robust Primary Care Track, which emphasizes outpatient continuity clinics, preventive medicine, and the management of chronic diseases in community-based settings. This track prepares residents to transition seamlessly into outpatient-focused careers serving local populations. By retaining graduates in the region, Inspira’s residency programs serve as a pipeline to produce skilled, community-focused primary care physicians who can sustain and expand access to high-quality care for residents.

Click Here for additional information on the Inspira-Vineland Internal Medicine residency Program.

Students in the PC3 track may decide to apply to an Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, or Pediatrics residency program outside the directed pathways in Cooper University Health Care and Inspira Medical Center. However, due to the structure of the PC3 curriculum, PC3 students in the 3rd year may not have completed all of the important clerkships at the time of residency application to guarantee a successful match result at a program outside of our directed pathway residency programs.