Primary care focused medical schools

[doctorold]

Is there a list or something that contains all allopathic med schools that have a focus on primary care, and recruit pre-meds interested in primary care? (Other than checking every single med school's website and mission statement)

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[ErrantWhatever]

Is there a list or something that contains all allopathic med schools that have a focus on primary care, and recruit pre-meds interested in primary care? (Other than checking every single med school's website and mission statement)

Do you have a specific reign in mind? I interviewed at 4 Midwest/Rockies state schools that all liked the idea of more PC graduates.

 

[doctorold]

No specific region. All across the U.S. thanks for the tip

 

[galaxyx]

The USNEWS top primary care is a place to start. Their metric is a little bit subjective, but part of it is # of students that go to primary care residencies. The list is free to look at.

 

[MedPR]

Look up a study done on social mission. It shows which schools have the highest percentage of grads who are minorities, who work in primary care, and/or who work in underserved areas.

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[MedWonk]

The school's mission statement can often give you a hint as to what sort of candidate they're looking for. Some schools will spell it out explicitly.

 

[sazerac]

I imagine the list of schools that are NOT focused on primary care would be much shorter.

 

[doctorold]

I imagine the list of schools that are NOT focused on primary care would be much shorter.

Really? I thought most allopathic schools are geared toward research, only a minority focus on primary care.

 

[ErrantWhatever]

Really? I thought most allopathic schools are geared toward research, only a minority focus on primary care.

False assumption uncovered.

A number of state schools I encountered offer scholarships and tuition reductions for people pursuing PC and/or rural PC.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Really? I thought most allopathic schools are geared toward research, only a minority focus on primary care.

It's the "in thing" now for schools to say they have a primary care focus. It appeals to the general public and politicians. The reality of how that influences their selection process and curriculum is a whole different issue.

Most of the schools that I know of that are genuinely focused on primary care have really, really strong IS preferences for students like North Dakota and UMN-Duluth. UND at least offers pretty substantial scholarships for people who go into primary care for at least 4 years post-residency. I know some schools have primary care tracks, but I don't know enough about them be able to list them off.

 

[doctorold]

It's the "in thing" now for schools to say they have a primary care focus. It appeals to the general public and politicians. The reality of how that influences their selection process and curriculum is a whole different issue.

How you mean? Why would they say something like that if they won't be recruiting pre-meds with strong interest in PC. They will be misleading applicants, and get all the people they don't want. won't they?

 

[wholeheartedly]

I just mean that saying they want to train primary care physicians is kind of a buzzword thing like "early patient interaction" and "pbl." a lot of places are trying to incorporate them, but some do it haphazardly to lure ppl in (and they genuinely do want to graduate primary care docs just not invest as much effort into implementing changes) and others put well thought out systems in place to make it work well. Some places say they have a primary care focus or want to train primary care docs but don't really change the set up much.

Then schools like the two I mentioned have special programs for interested students. UND has the ROME program (Rural Opportunities for Medical Education) for students to get a long stretch of exposure to rural primary medicine while meeting graduation requirements which I've heard is pretty awesome according to students who have done it. MN has the Rural Physician Associate Program along those same lines.

Just do your homework, you'll probably be able to feel things out pretty easily.

 

[Shjanzey]

I know that the University of Kansas specifically states in their mission statement that their focus is primary care. I only know that because I was given an interview there and they seemed to stress it a lot.

 

[Shinobiz11]

MSU and CMU

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[sazerac]

I just mean that saying they want to train primary care physicians is kind of a buzzword thing like "early patient interaction" and "pbl." a lot of places are trying to incorporate them, but some do it haphazardly to lure ppl in (and they genuinely do want to graduate primary care docs just not invest as much effort into implementing changes) and others put well thought out systems in place to make it work well. Some places say they have a primary care focus or want to train primary care docs but don't really change the set up much.

Then schools like the two I mentioned have special programs for interested students. UND has the ROME program (Rural Opportunities for Medical Education) for students to get a long stretch of exposure to rural primary medicine while meeting graduation requirements which I've heard is pretty awesome according to students who have done it. MN has the Rural Physician Associate Program along those same lines.

Just do your homework, you'll probably be able to feel things out pretty easily.

And University of Washington has the R/UOP program. And Tufts has the Maine Track. And Nevada has a primary care track. And Tulane has TRuMEd. And one Texas school has a program where if you do primary care you can graduate in 3 years instead of 4, saving a year of medical school tuition (which in Texas is what, $7K? ).

I still say the list of medical schools that do not have a primary care emphasis will be short.

 

[doctorold]

Thank you guys for the input. I will consider all the schools you mentioned, and will look up all the allopathic schools and see if I can compile some kinda of a list.

 

[yossarian444]

It's the "in thing" now for schools to say they have a primary care focus. It appeals to the general public and politicians. The reality of how that influences their selection process and curriculum is a whole different issue. .

This is exactly true for all publicly funded schools. Think about it: Every state is projecting shortages in primary care in rural areas. People know this, politicians know this. Medical schools are at the mercy of politicians for funding. Of course they're going to tip their hat toward primary care to seduce the politicians, whether that be in mission statements, special programs, loan forgiveness, dropping a year of medical school for those going into primary care, etc.

I'm not sure what metric to look at in judging a school's primary care focus; nor am I really sure it matters one bit. Looking at percent going into primary care surely can't be such a metric - I'm sure top schools that crank out specialists year after year also have a small subset that excel in primary care and land top-notch primary care residencies (think Mayo, Hopkins, etc). Furthermore, if you're able to somehow convince the admissions folks at one of these specialist-factories that you are one of the few who are genuinley interested in PC and will be one of the few who miraculously keeps this interest throughout medical school; perhaps this will give you an advantage in the adcom's eyes. Though I'm pretty sure admissions people are wary of the "I'm interested in PC" tactic - they know there is no reasonable way an applicant can predict what interest will rise to the top 4 years down the line - I doubt they put too much stock into an applicant's supposed interest.

In short - go to any school IMO. They will all allow you ample opportunities for primary care.

 

[Huskies88]

Bumping this two month old thread because the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University was not mentioned!

Here's a good article describing the school's mission:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...-wants-to-build-ranks-of-primary-care-doctors

 

[Pons Asinorum]

I think this is a useful primer about a pitfall for looking at which schools have a primary care focus:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/04/match-day-primary-care-aftermath-deans-lie-continues.html

I think a useful metric (mentioned in that article) is the number/percentage of graduating seniors who matched into FM. Maybe AAFP has that information? Someone more interested than I would have to sniff that out.

Caveat: I have little interest in primary care for my own career.

 

[Huskies88]

I think this is a useful primer about a pitfall for looking at which schools have a primary care focus:
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2013/04/match-day-primary-care-aftermath-deans-lie-continues.html

I think a useful metric (mentioned in that article) is the number/percentage of graduating seniors who matched into FM. Maybe AAFP has that information? Someone more interested than I would have to sniff that out.

Caveat: I have little interest in primary care for my own career.

Thanks for posting. That's a very eyeopening article to say the least. I agree with you and KevinMD on the use of FM matched med students as a metric towards coining a school as a primary care institution.

 

[DrMidlife]

Primary care focus is pure horsecrap when cost of attendance is up around $300k.