Differences between Medical schools: Primary Care, Research, Public Health...

bluedevilmike
Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:21:30 +0000

Bluntly, it’s not clear to me why USN separates them out.

Both rankings are pretty flawed, for two reasons.

1.) Most students that I’ve seen want neither a primary care nor a research career. Most of them want an as-yet-undetermined specialist career, and USN doesn’t rank those in any quantitative manner.

2.) Even on their own merits, the lists are imperfect. BRM points out that many schools have non-NIH research budgets, and the research list ignores those. The primary care list is really a joke, since it just measures the proportion of kids going into specialties that USN thinks might be primary care careers.

3.) Here’s the bottom line: the research list is pretty good if you want to be a researcher. These researchers will also be practicing physicians, but their careers are mostly defined by research. The primary care is just plain useless, even if you’re interested in a career in primary care.

Generally, you’ll notice that student selectivity measures are more tightly correlated with the research rankings than the primary care rankings, as are USN’s prestige metrics. But the fit isn’t perfect.

4.) Here’s the EVEN MORE bottom line (subterranean?): people at primary care schools can go on to research careers; people in research schools will be taking care of patients. The effects are noticeable, but they’re probably more due to student self-selection than to opportunities available to them.

Unlike law school or business school, where the “rank” of your program matters quite a bit, it’s less important in medicine. Especially if your main career goal is to care for patients.