Physician Practice Roundup—Rankings of medical schools by U.S. News

Rankings of medical schools by U.S. News

What’s the best medical school for primary care? How about for surgery?

The latest rankings by U.S. News & World Report list the University of North Carolina as the best medical school for students who want to get into primary care. And Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, is the best for surgery programs, as well as anesthesiology and internal medicine, according to the rankings that list medical schools by a number of specialties. Johns Hopkins tied with Harvard for being best for radiology. Harvard was the best medical school for obstetrics/gynecology and psychiatry, as well as the best for research.

The rankings also list the 10 inexpensive public medical schools as well as public and private medical schools that award the most financial aid. The medical school where graduates have the most debt? It’s Rocky Vista University in Parker, Colorado, where the average debt of 2018 graduates was $364,000. (U.S. News & World Report rankings)

Atrium Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health eyeing plan to merge, create new medical school

Atrium Health, Wake Forest Baptist Health and Wake Forest University are exploring a merger that would create a new academic health system.

The three organizations signed a memorandum of understanding to enter exclusive negotiations to explore a partnership that would create a new medical school in Charlotte and create an "expanded research and innovation core" in Winston-Salem. They expect to have a final agreement later this year. (FierceHealthcare)

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai launches scholarship program to reduce student debt

Another medical school is taking action to help reduce student debt. The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS) today announced an Enhanced Scholarship Initiative (ESI), a new program offering substantial debt relief for students with demonstrated financial need.

The program will launch in the upcoming academic year and enable qualifying students who enter the medical school in 2019 and after to graduate with a maximum total debt of $75,000, the school said. (ISMMS announcement)

5 more medical schools join AMA consortium to create medical schools of the future

Five additional medical schools have joined the American Medical Association’s (AMA) consortium aimed at creating medical schools of the future.

The AMA announced that the five schools joining the consortium are Stanford University School of Medicine; the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine; the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

That brings the total number of medical schools in the consortium to 37. (AMA announcement)

Texas Tech medical school required not to consider race in admissions process

Under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, the Texas Tech University Health Sciences School of Medicine will no longer consider race as a factor in its admissions process, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The school entered into an agreement with the government in February, which marks the first time the Trump administration has asked a school to curtail its affirmative action practices, the newspaper said. (The Wall Street Journal article)