US News Ranks PM&R but Rutgers NJMS is only 5th?

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GeneRx

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Hi everyone,

Did y'all see the rankings of PM&R programs by US News and World Report? (kinda anyway)

It is actually a joint Doximity US News marketing stunt based on polls of Doximity users but it is sorta interesting anyway.

http://health.usnews.com/health-new...dency-navigator-injects-transparency-into-gme

My favorite program, Rutgers NJMS, is ranked 5th which might be a little low but hey it is just based on Doximity users opinions. It looks like you have to sign up for Doximity to see the full list though which I have not done.

What do y'all think?

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Not overly surprising as the top 6 which are commonly mentioned here aligned. I was pleased to see UPMC rising as I think Dr. Boninger has done a great job supporting and growing that program over the past few years. I was a little surprised to see VCU and UTSW as far back as they were, as I had always thought the consensus had them as stronger programs overall.

In the end, as with all of the rankings and advice you'll get, it is about where you feel is the best fit for you, where you think you'll get solid training and where you know you'll be able to thrive.
 
I don't know about others (and I say this without knowing where my program lies in the ranking), but I put little faith in any kind of USNWR rankings/opinion polls. It's far more important, especially for PM&R (but true for any residency) to go where it's the best fit for you. You want to go to the program that will best prepare you for the career you want, and ideally at the program that fits you best/where you'll be happiest.
 
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The results are based purely on physician survey. Larger programs graduate larger classes... of course graduates will rate their own program more highly. There's nothing objective about this survey, don't take it too seriously.
 
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Agree with the above comments. Many institutions (in all specialties) were directly emailing their faculty to sign up for doximity just so they could vote for their home institution in this survey. Artificial popularity does not signify a good program...
 
The results are based purely on physician survey. Larger programs graduate larger classes... of course graduates will rate their own program more highly. There's nothing objective about this survey, don't take it too seriously.

Logic. I like.
 
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I looked at the results and they aren't completely off base. Though Kessler may be #5...the other four programs in the top five (RIC, Mayo, UWash, and Spurling) are all top notch. With as little information that is out there regarding rehab programs...I found it to be useful. I think that the big surprise is UPMC being that high...but it is a solid program...who it would make some sense. They have Emory pretty low comparatively.
 
I don’t think this survey is completely meaningless. I would find it helpful as an applying MS4.


There is some objective data to the survey. "Percent who specialize" is not particularly informative to me... But, percentile in "peer reviewed articles" and "clinical trials" is objective and seems to reveal some players that have not been historically mentioned on these forums are doing quite a bit of research.

The subjective portion of the survey… I agree needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Larger residencies are going to have larger graduating classes which interact with other rehab docs who then, in turn, glean into program quality from their interactions with those people.

However, I do not think the subjective portion of the survey is entirely meaningless. For example, program directors are more likely to have a pulse on the relative strength of programs and are probably more qualified than any of us to make the “gestalt” assessment.

I made some tables of my own because everyone likes data presented in different charts; just sorting by other columns.

PDs
#1 McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University Program 12
#1 University of Washington Program 11
#4 Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester) Program 9
#3 Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard Medical School Program 6
#7 UPMC Medical Education Program 6

Peer reviewed articles percentile
#1 University of Washington Program 94
#3 Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital/Harvard Medical School Program 93
#4 Mayo Clinic College of Medicine (Rochester) Program 86
#1 McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University Program 76
#6 Baylor College of Medicine Program 71

Alumni grants and clinical trials percentile
#10 Stanford University Program 94
#1 McGaw Medical Center of Northwestern University Program 93
#1 University of Washington Program 88
#8 Ohio State University Hospital Program 85
#7 UPMC Medical Education Program 84


Note that I only sorted the “top 10” in the survey because I’m not going to go through all 80 programs to reconstruct the data. But I’m sure there may be other programs who would fit in here if sorted by the objective data. For example, in sorting by peer reviewed articles, UM and NYU would overtake Baylor, and JHU would be #1. NRH would be 4th if sorted by clinical trials. ( I didn't look at the data past NRH just for time reasons).

All that being said, nobody should go to a program just because of its ranking. Your own happiness is going to determine whether you are a productive resident. This is based on your own gut feeling, location, your social support network, whether you want to live in a rural or urban area, whether you want to be part of a free-standing rehab center or hospital based program. You may not have a research interest and therefore the other data above may be less important to you.

To OP Regarding Kessler; I think everyone knows it is an excellent program but asking us if it should be higher is akin to asking which of the ones above it (RIC, Mayo, UW, or Spaulding) is worse and should be ranked lower. It’s probably not going to be a productive discussion.
 
I looked at the results and they aren't completely off base. Though Kessler may be #5...the other four programs in the top five (RIC, Mayo, UWash, and Spurling) are all top notch. With as little information that is out there regarding rehab programs...I found it to be useful. I think that the big surprise is UPMC being that high...but it is a solid program...who it would make some sense. They have Emory pretty low comparatively.

Medical students and premeds put way too much emphasis on rankings and names. At the point of residency you should be looking for the place that will best prepare you to do what you want to do. I know lots of people who ranked those top programs very high. And I know just as many who were quite unimpressed when they interviewed and ranked "lesser" programs higher--it all came down to fit.

A general rule of rehab program ranking I've gathered from SDN, my PM&R interviews/interviewers, my current attendings, and my colleagues:
- The majority of people will say RIC is the top PM&R program overall (for outpatient training I think most will say Mayo is the strongest)
- The majority will list RIC, UW, Kessler, Mayo, Spaulding as the top programs. I usually hear Baylor and sometimes UM in that same list.
- Just about everyone will say go where you'll thrive--even if that means choosing a "lower ranked" program like UNC (one my two favorite programs) over a program like Kessler or Mayo. Only you best know where you'll thrive, so don't give in to the "you should go here because it's the best" hype or the fact that other's think program X is a hidden gem. I unfortunately gave in to some of that advice and I immediately regretted it the day after submitting my rank list. Fortunately I matched my favorite program (I ranked it third).

(You'll hear that fairly common too--that people are glad they matched where they matched--so that should help everyone feel better that the world doesn't come to an end if you don't match your first or second or third choice. But still--go where you'll thrive, however you define that)

Eat, drink, be merry, have fun at your interviews, and hopefully the ambitions and dreams of your brains and hearts collide when it comes time to ranking programs.
 
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I can't emphasize this enough: rankings mean nothing. There's nothing that UW or Spaulding knows about general PM&R that you can't learn elsewhere.
What's most important is to find a place you'll be comfortable training for 3 or 4 years:
- location
- support system
- affinity with attendings and residents
- Particular skill you want to develop: for instance, MCW would be a great choice if you want to learn Botox, Mayo is a great place for MSK ultrasound. RIC is supposedly the best place in the universe, but if you want to practice outpatient MSK you might be miserable there. You'll likely get more pain procedures than average at U of Colorado. If you like Sports, UVA would be a great place to train. Those things are going to matter a lot more than mere opinion-based rankings.

Ultimately, it's about balancing the skill set you want to acquire with what's the best place for you to live.
 
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