BLACK MED SCHOOLS OUTPERFORM

Washington, DC – As the health system girds for an influx of newly insured patients, a new study in the June 15 Annals of Internal Medicine examines the record of the nation’s medical schools in graduating physicians to meet this new public need. The study, the first to score all U.S. medical schools on their ability to meet a social mission, shows wide variations among institutions in their production of physicians who practice primary care, work in underserved areas, and are minorities.

Key findings from the George Washington University study of 141 medical schools:

Medical schools in the Northeast generally performed poorly on all three measures and, as such, had the lowest regional social mission scores.
Public medical schools graduated higher proportions of primary care physicians than their private counterparts.
Schools with substantial National Institutes of Health research funding generally produced fewer primary care physicians and physicians practicing in underserved areas, and thus had lower social mission scores overall.
Several large research institutions (notably the University of Minnesota and University of Washington) defied this trend, ranking in the top quartile for overall social mission score.
Historically black schools had the highest social mission rankings.
Osteopathic schools produced more primary care physicians than allopathic schools but trained fewer minorities.
Schools in progressively smaller cities produced more primary care physicians and physicians who practiced in underserved communities but graduated fewer minorities.

With medical schools expanding for the first time in over 30 years, the findings bring attention to the role that medical schools play in determining the make-up of the U.S. physician workforce. “Where doctors choose to work, and what specialty they select, are heavily influenced by medical school,” says lead author Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, a professor of health policy at George Washington University. “By recruiting minority students and prioritizing the training of primary care physicians and promoting practice in underserved areas, medical schools will help deliver the health care that Americans desperately need,” he says. The study was funded with a grant from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.

To determine the true outcomes of medical education rather than the intermediate preferences of medical students and residents, Mullan and his team studied physicians in practice after the completion of all training and national obligations (such as military service or National Health Service Corps placements). The researchers examined data from medical school graduates from 1999 to 2001, which provided a very different picture than previous studies. Previous analyses, such as the popular U.S. News & World Report rankings, have relied on the initial residency selection or reported specialty preference of students. The George Washington University study pinpoints where graduates are and what type of medicine they actually practice. The study provides a real-time and real-place report on the actual career selections of medical school graduates and the health care they currently provide.

The 20 schools with the highest social mission scores (ranked from highest to lowest):

1. Morehouse College

2. Meharry Medical College

3. Howard University

4. Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine

5. University of Kansas

6. Michigan State University

7. East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine

8. University of South Alabama, Ponce Medical College

9. University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

10. Oregon Health & Sciences University

11. East Tennessee State University Quillen College of Medicine

12. University of Mississippi

13. University of Kentucky

14. Southern Illinois University

15. Marshall University

16. Joan C. Edwards University

17. University of Massachusetts Medical School Worcester

18. University of Illinois

19. University of New Mexico

20. University of Wisconsin

The 20 schools with the lowest social mission scores (ranked from highest to lowest):

122. Johns Hopkins University

123. Stanford University

124. Duke University

125. Texas A&M University

126. Columbia University

127. Albany Medical College, Columbia University

128. Medical College of Wisconsin

129. University of Pennsylvania

130. Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine

131. Boston University

132. Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University

133. Stony Brook University

134. Thomas Jefferson University

135. Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

136. University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey

137. New York University

138. University of California Irvine

139. Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

140. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

141. Vanderbilt University

The authors note that these findings are important in the context of U.S. health care today. “The social mission of medicine and medical education should be important to everyone. It isn’t just about rural areas or just about poor people, it’s about the entire fabric of how we deliver care,” says Mullan. “As patients are insured through health reform, the first place they will go is the primary care office. Medical schools need to be mindful of the nation’s requirements for primary care, for doctors prepared to work in underserved communities, and for minority physicians to help meet the growing and changing needs of the country.”

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“The Social Mission of Medication Education: Ranking the Schools” is published in the June 15, 2010, Annals of Internal Medicine.

The research was performed under the auspices of The Medical Education Futures Study (www.medicaleducationfutures.org), a research program that examines the social mission of medical education during the current period of medical school expansion and health care reform. It is funded by the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation.