NEW: UMass Med Ranked #9 in Primary Care Education by U.S. News & World Report

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

GoLocalWorcester News Team

Worcester's University of Massachusetts Medical School (UMMS) finished near the top of its class in U.S. News & World Report's 2014 "Best Graduate Schools" issue.

UMass Med School ranked 9th in primary care education out of 126 medical schools and 23 schools of osteopathic medicine surveyed for the 2014 edition. The school also came in at #46 for top research schools and #46 in the biological sciences.

UMMS has been listed near the top of the category for nearly two decades, since 1994 when U.S. News first began publishing the rankings. The Worcester-based medical school is the only one in the top 50 that accepts only in-state students into its medical degree program.

“UMass Medical School’s consistently high ranking is a reflection of our dedication to our mission and the faculty’s unwavering commitment to providing an outstanding education to our students,” said UMMS Chancellor Michael F. Collins, MD. “As we enter a period of unprecedented change in health care, the part our medical school, faculty and students play in shaping this future has never been more essential.”

UMass Med, which had accepted just 100 students per year since the 1970s, recently expanded the class to 125 to help increase the pool of physicians, particularly primary care providers, trained to meet the needs of the Commonwealth and the rest of the country. Traditionally, more than 50 percent of each year’s graduates enter a primary care residency program. In addition, more than half of each class stays in the state for residency, totaling 260 new residents in the last five years alone.

“A national leader in primary care education and in biomedical research, UMass Medical School continues to garner national and worldwide recognition for its quality programs in these and other areas,” said University of Massachusetts President Robert L. Caret, PhD. “The accomplishments of the students, faculty and alumni at UMass Medical School are a testament to the vision that created our system of public higher education 150 years ago, and that is a vision of service to individuals, to communities, to our nation and the world.”