RWJBarnabas Health Joins Liberty Science Center's SciTech Scity as Hospital Innovation Lead Partner

JERSEY CITY, N.J., February 29, 2024 – Liberty Science Center and RWJBarnabas Health announced today that the largest academic healthcare system in New Jersey is joining the Healthcare Innovation Engine at SciTech Scity as the Hospital Innovation Lead Partner.

SciTech Scity, the “Science City of Tomorrow” being developed by Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, will be a 30-acre innovation campus devoted to using science and technology to address humanity’s greatest challenges, from inadequate healthcare to climate change, and create a better future for all.

RWJBarnabas Health joins SciTech Scity partners Bristol Myers Squibb, EY (Ernst & Young), Nokia Bell Labs, Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and others for a comprehensive multi-disciplinary effort to advance the use of new digital technologies to pioneer and spearhead new and more cost-effective methods of delivering care for underserved communities in New Jersey and beyond, and to elevate startups working on some of the biggest challenges in healthcare.

“We are absolutely thrilled to partner with SciTech Scity to collaborate on innovation initiatives and create new pathways to advance health equity,” said Michael Prilutsky, Executive Vice President for RWJBarnabas Health and President and Chief Executive Officer for Jersey City Medical Center. “Our collaboration as a premier academic health system will help facilitate scientific advancement while supporting our mission of improving the health status of our communities.”

The announcement of RWJBarnabas Health as the Hospital Innovation Lead Partner will formally be made tonight by Paul Hoffman, President and CEO of Liberty Science Center, at the official launch of the Healthcare Innovation Engine – SciTech Scity’s flagship program – during a summit keynoted by Dr. Kaitlin Baston, the New Jersey State Health Commissioner. Some 30 healthcare leaders from industry, government, and academia will convene for the summit to identify specific medical challenges the Healthcare Innovation Engine will tackle, discuss possible prototype solutions, and set the path forward for developing and testing candidate solutions.

This work will be done in conjunction with startup companies, community and health organizations, hospitals, universities, and other partners, in order to test and validate specific products and solutions, as well as to conduct joint research efforts with the SciTech Scity academic ecosystem to collect the data needed to support broader adoption. The expansive university partner network includes Fairleigh Dickinson, NJIT, NYU, Princeton, Rowan, and Stevens Institute of Technology.

Hoffman says that RWJBarnabas Health is the perfect partner for this visionary endeavor, given the close proximity of Jersey City Medical Center, one of its 12 hospitals, to Liberty Science Center and SciTech Scity and given its “unmatched leadership position in the state as the largest and most comprehensive academic health system.”

As the Hospital Innovation Lead Partner, RWJBarnabas Health will take an active role in the Healthcare Innovation program design and delivery, contributing clinical expertise, products and resources towards the community pilots and health equity initiatives. RWJBarnabas Health will also further accelerate its innovation leadership by working closely with startups, researchers and other innovators in the SciTech Scity Healthcare Innovation Engine and beyond.

Over the last five years, RWJBarnabas Health has made $300M in investments in modern infrastructure and equipment, and further solidified its position in the region, serving over 3,000,000 patients per year, including more than 50% of all the underserved in the State (Charity Care and Medicaid). It is one of the largest academic medical groups in the country, with 9,000 providers, integrated with RWJMS, Rutgers Health and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, with the largest academic and research infrastructure and NIH funding in New Jersey.

Hudson County, where both LSC and Jersey City Medical Center are located, will be one of the primary testing grounds for SciTech Scity’s digital health pilot initiatives. It is the most densely populated county in the most densely populated state, and one of the most diverse in the entire US with over 40% of residents being foreign-born population, and 40 different first languages being spoken. Its inland communities are also one of the most economically disadvantaged, ranking particularly high on measures of health vulnerability making it an ideal testing ground to address systemic challenges in the healthcare system.

This is because after decades of progress, life expectancy in America has been decreasing since 2014. And while COVID, opioids and gun violence have contributed to this downward spiral, it is chronic diseases – heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, respiratory afflictions, liver and kidney disease and others – that are the greatest culprits. A year-long examination by the Washington Post found that chronic diseases are killing more than twice as many Americans under age 65 as overdoses, homicides, suicides and car accidents combined. This mortality crisis is exacerbated by the country’s economic and racial divides. People in the poorest areas are 61 percent more likely to die early.

Moreover, the overwhelming driver of the enormous healthcare costs in the US come from “SICKcare,” reactive, mostly hospital-based, point-in-time interventions when diseases are very advanced. But Hoffman declares, “the paramount societal challenge we must focus on now is the transformation of our current SICKcare system to true HEALTHcare that detects illnesses in their infancy, or prevents illnesses entirely, through cost effective digital home health technology.”

He adds that to advance the SICKcare-to-HEALTHcare vision, “we are establishing a diverse ecosystem of partners, including universities, hospital systems, public health authorities, and pharmaceutical and medical technology companies. Only through such a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach will we be able to transform a problem as pervasive as structural issues around healthcare access in America.”

About SciTech Scity
Liberty Science Center is developing a “Science City of Tomorrow” in Jersey City—a 30-acre innovation campus called SciTech Scity devoted to using science and technology to address humanity’s greatest challenges, from inadequate healthcare to climate change, and create a better future for all of us. The new campus, including the existing Liberty Science Center, home of the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, will be officially named the Frank J. Guarini Innovation Campus and is scheduled to open in 2025 and 2026.

SciTech Scity will include $450 million of new construction: Edge Works, an eight-story business-creation center with laboratories, R&D spaces, office suites, co-working spaces, a tech exhibition gallery, and a state-of-the-art conference center; Scholars Village, 500 apartments built and operated by Alpine Residential for innovators, scientists, entrepreneurs, and other tech-forward individuals and families; Liberty Science Center High School, a new public magnet STEM high school built by the Hudson County Improvement Authority and operated by the Hudson County Schools of Technology; and Public Commons, three acres of outdoor space for art installations, food trucks, performances, farmers markets, science festivals, and maker fairs.

Learn more at SciTechScity.com.

About Liberty Science Center
Liberty Science Center (LSC.org) is a 300,000-square-foot, not-for-profit learning center located in Liberty State Park on the Jersey City bank of the Hudson near the Statue of Liberty. Dedicated to inspiring the next generation of scientists and engineers and bringing the power, promise, and pure fun of science and technology to learners of all ages, Liberty Science Center houses the largest planetarium in the Western Hemisphere, 12 museum exhibition halls, a live animal collection with 110 species, giant aquariums, a 3D theater, live simulcast surgeries, a tornado-force wind simulator, K-12 classrooms and labs, and teacher-development programs. More than 250,000 students visit the Science Center each year, and tens of thousands more participate in the Center’s off-site and online programs. Welcoming more than 750,000 visitors annually, LSC is the largest cultural institution in New Jersey and the largest interactive science center in the NYC-NJ metropolitan area.

About RWJBarnabas Health
RWJBarnabas Health is the largest, most comprehensive academic health care system in New Jersey, with a service area covering eight counties with five million people. The system includes twelve acute care hospitals – Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville, Community Medical Center in Toms River, Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, Jersey City Medical Center in Jersey City, Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch, Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset in Somerville, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton in Hamilton, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway in Rahway and Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, three acute care children’s hospitals, Children’s Specialized Hospital with a network of outpatient pediatric rehabilitation centers, a freestanding 100-bed behavioral health center, two trauma centers, a satellite emergency department, ambulatory care centers, geriatric centers, the state’s largest behavioral health network, comprehensive home care and hospice programs, fitness and wellness centers, retail pharmacy services, affiliated medical groups, multi-site imaging centers and two accountable care organizations.

RWJBarnabas Health is among New Jersey’s largest private employers – with more than 41,000 employees and 9,000 physicians– and routinely captures national awards for outstanding quality and safety. RWJBarnabas Health launched an affiliation with Rutgers University to create New Jersey’s largest academic health care system. The collaboration aligns RWJBarnabas Health with Rutgers' education, research and clinical activities, including those at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey - the state's only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center - and Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care. For more information, visit www.RWJBH.org.