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More information: Beverly McCoy, 691-1713
Marshall’s
med school ties for nation’s top
spot
for graduates entering family
practice
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. -- Marshall University’s medical school is tied for No. 1 in the nation in the percentage of medical school graduates entering family practice, according to a study in the September issue of the journal Family Medicine.
Marshall’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine shares the top spot with Florida State University. Both had 22.2 percent of their graduates enter family practice residencies in the study year (2006-07), compared to a national average of 8.5 percent.
“This #1 ranking affirms the commitment of Marshall University’s School of Medicine to educating physicians who are the front line of primary health care delivery in our nation,” said Marshall University President Stephen J. Kopp, Ph.D. “Combined with the stellar medical licensure exam performance achieved by our medical school graduates each year, the MUSOM serves the State of West Virginia and our nation exceptionally well through the education of highly qualified physicians who excel in family practice and other medical specialties.”
The finding represents good news for small West Virginia communities, said Dr. Robert B. Walker, who is the medical school’s executive vice dean and chair of the Department of Family and Community Health.
“Most West Virginia counties have communities that rely on primary care physicians because they do not have a hospital or city where subspecialists practice,” he said. “Family doctors are on the front line of our attempt to create a healthier West Virginia.
“National studies show there is an impending shortage of family doctors and other primary care physicians of monumental proportions, so we are fortunate in West Virginia that we have communities and policy makers who support the education of these physicians,” he added. “We’re proud of our ranking at the top, and we’re grateful to Marshall for giving us the resources to achieve this ranking.”
Led by Dr. Perry Pugno of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the researchers gathered data from schools that grant M.D. and D.O. (osteopathic) degrees, as well as from family medicine residency programs. The study had a 100 percent response rate.
Nationally, the percentage of students entering family practice is lower than two years ago. The researchers said that schools were more likely to have higher rates of students entering the field when the schools had departments of family medicine and were public, rather than private, schools.
As the nation’s medical schools take more students to help head off a predicted shortage of doctors, a strong emphasis on family medicine remains essential, the study’s authors believe. “[S]imply increasing the number of medical school graduates will result in a physician workforce that will continue to be inappropriately distributed to care for the needs of the nation,” they said.
“An adequate pipeline of future family physicians is essential to achieving the primary care foundation needed in the US health care system.”
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