Top Ten for Graduates in Family Medicine Graduates

By Doug Boyd

The Brody School of Medicine is one of the top 10 medical schools in the country for sending graduates into family medicine, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Representatives of the Brody School of Medicine and the other schools are being recognized May 1 at the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine meeting in Denver.

This is the third consecutive year ECU has been ranked in the top 10.

“This award is recognition of the Brody School of Medicine’s support and commitment for the training of family physicians,” said Dr. Kenneth Steinweg, interim chair of the Department of Family Medicine at Brody. “It reflects a school-wide effort beginning with the admissions process and extending through the clinical years. Family physicians are in huge demand throughout our region and state, and we are working hard to meet that need.”

Based on a three-year average for the period ending last October, 15.8 percent of the school’s graduates have entered an accredited family medicine residency program.

In March, 21 percent of Brody’s graduating students matched with family medicine residency programs during the school’s annual Match Day. Ten of those 13 graduates will remain in North Carolina for their residency training.

The AAFP is a national medical association representing more than 94,000 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students interested in family medicine. Family physicians are medical specialists trained in the diagnosis and treatment of the majority of medical problems. Family physicians care for people of all ages and both sexes.

High Ranking From U.S. News

By Doug Boyd

The Brody School of Medicine is ranked among the top medical schools in the country that emphasize primary care, according to the annual listing of the top graduate schools by U.S. News & World Report magazine.

ECU is 28th overall among primary care schools this year. In the rural medicine subcategory, the school ranks seventh. ECU also sent the seventh-highest percentage of its graduates, 53.3 percent, into primary care residencies between 2006 and 2008. U.S. News defines primary care as family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine.

The U.S. News rankings of U.S. professional and graduate schools was available on newsstands April 28. In medicine, the magazine considered the 126 accredited U.S. medical schools and 20 schools of osteopathic medicine.

This year, the University of Washington again was rated the top primary care school. Harvard University ranked first among medical schools that emphasize research.

Rankings for primary care schools are based on a weighted average of seven indicators, four of them common for research- and primary care-focused schools. The primary care model also considered the number of graduates entering primary care residencies.