Primary Care vs. Research

[WendsJ]

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What is exactly the definition of primary care? Also, when looking at school rankings, which should I consider more, the primary care rankings or the research rankings?

 

[Mike59]

Originally posted by WendsJ
What is exactly the definition of primary care? Also, when looking at school rankings, which should I consider more, the primary care rankings or the research rankings?

Primary care is the usual first point of entry for a patient into the health care system when seeking assistance for a medical problem.

The fields usually under this umbrella are:

Family Medicine
OB/Gyn
Pediatrics
Internal Medicine (When the IM doc works as an "internist" in private practice)

EM is not usually under this category, but is sometimes classified for primary care funding if I'm not mistaken (military etc.)

My advice is decide what's best for yourself, but don't read too much into the rankings.

 

[VienneseWaltz]

Look at rankings with a grain of salt, first of all. I am told that the PC rankings are pretty useless.

Which is more important depends on what you want to do. If you want to go into academic medicine or do research, the research rankings are somewhat important.

Primary care is generally defined as pediatrics, general internal medicine, family medicine, and sometimes OB/GYN. At one of my interviews, the dean added psychiatry and emergency medicine to that list. When people talk about having a regular doctor (who refers them to a specialist if they need it), they mean a primary care provider.

If you are going into academic medicine (that is, you want to teach, administrate, or do research at a medical school or teaching hospital), you should consider the rankings when you make your decision. If you want to go into private practice, especially primary care and other lower-paying specialties, most people's advice is to go to the cheapest school you can get into.

 

[Doc Ivy]

Primary care specialties are as follows:
Family Medicine
General Internal Medicine (not it's subspecialties)
Pediatrics (again not pediatric subspecialties)
Some might argue OB/Gyn is a primary care specialty, if there is such a thing as "secondary care" I would put it here as there is a great deal of surgery that accompanies this

Non-primary care include:
Surgery
Psych
Anaesthesia
Radiology
Dermatology
Emergency Medicine
Pathology
Neurology and Neurosurg
etc.

If you want to find yourself at a top institution doing research or want to be otherwise involved in academia, then look at the research rankings--if you want to ensure a match in a supercompetitive residency (i.e. competitive field, or competitve school) then look at research. If you know you are particularly interested in primary care, want to work in rural or underserved areas, then pay special attention to primary care. Otherwise, don't be a rankings slave, and just go to the best "feeling" school that accepts you. 🙂
Peace~ Doc

 

[VienneseWaltz]

One reason some people consider EM to be primary care is because EM docs see a lot of people who SHOULD BE going to a primary care provider, so they wind up dealing with a lot of primary care issues. If trauma surgery and family medicine had a kid, you would get EM.

OB/GYN is often considered with PC b/c many HMOs allow women to designate a GYN as their "gateway" (primary) provider, but Doc Ivy is right in that a lot of surgery is associated with this specialty.