USNews Primary Care Rankings!

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njdevil

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Today is a good day for Osteopathic Medicine. The long sought after and deserved recognition by press has occured.

Ranked 27. West Virginia-SOM
31. Michigan State U.-COM
38. Nova Southeastern
48. University of New England

It is definitely a push in the right direction! Whether we care about rankings or not it is considered international recognition and shows DO schools outranking MD schools in some areas.

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Can you tell me where to find these rankings? I would like to see the article. Thanks.

Renee
 
www.usnews.com "best graduate schools"

Pete
 
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Thanks for alerting us to those rankings. I spent a good bit of time looking over the USN&WR rankings today and my opinion of medical schools rankings has not changed: criteria is everything. Here are my thoughts.

If you look at the methodology, reputation constitutes 40% of the weight. Immediately, osteopathic medical schools are at a disadvantage because reputation is largely based on a medical school's research production -- which has never been the focus (for good or bad) of osteopathic medical schools.

The fact that any osteopathic medical schools were represented in the primary care rankings surprises me (solely because of the criteria used in the rankings), and yet there were four. Explanation? Well, one possible explanation might be that the other aspects of the schools were strong enough to compensate for the very poor reputation score each osteopathic school received. (This is just a theory -- we can't make any definitive conclusions). But one thing remains clear: those four osteopathic schools appeared in the top 50 primary care schools while 78 other M.D. schools failed to take those spots from them.

There was one other observation I found interesting. Since reputation was based on survey data, I wonder about the negative bias towards osteopathic institutions based solely on their "osteopathic" nature. As we all know, Michigan State University (MSU) has both an M.D. school (MSUCHM) and a D.O. school (MSUCOM) on the same campus. It is my understanding that some of classes are even combined. Well interestingly, both MSUCOM and MSUCHM appear in the top 50 primary care schools. MSUCHM is ranked 23rd, and MSUCOM is ranked 31st. Yet take a close look at their stats. MSUCOM has a slightly higher GPA but slightly lower MCAT -- so the acceptance stats even out pretty well. Across the board, the stats are surprisingly similar, except in one area: reputation. In some areas of reputation there is almost a 60 point difference in the reputation between the two schools. That difference might suggest just how subjective (and therefore prone to bias) the reputation ranking is. After all, these schools are located on the same campus and the students share some of the same classes and facilities.

Bias? We can't say because the survey wasn't designed to answer that question and we certainly cannot infer cause and effect from this ranking.

Any comments?

ggulick.gif


[This message has been edited by Gregory Gulick (edited 03-20-99).]
 
I am not so concerned with where they are ranked as I am that they were. They considered them medical school. Not other health science programs that are specialties like chiropractic, podiatric, or dental school. But a very popular ranking magazine treated them somewhat fairly. OK reputation may be overrated but the fact is there reps will rise by being placed on that list. I think the amount of people who apply will go up and maybe even there admissions requirements. Basic point, it is recognition from the press that didn't exist before. It was a will ago that DO schools weren't even listed in US News. Now they have there own section and are even ranked. It is a move in the right direction. Being considered to be legit to the public is key. This is a step in the right direction

Statistically, the stat that put these schools on the map was % entering primary care: btw 81-93%. That is really impressive.

Nova won the award last year for teaching that Harvard and Baylor had one before and now DO schools are considered to be some of the best primary schools in the country. I say give it up for progress...it may be slow..but what type of medical schools are expanding and starting new schools...osteopathic schools!


 
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