U.S. News Names UAMS a Best Medical School for Primary Care, Rural Practice
| LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) continues to climb U.S. News & World Report’s list of Best Medical Schools.
The magazine’s annual ranking of medical and osteopathic schools across the country was released today, showing that for 2024, UAMS ranked fourth nationally for primary care education, ninth for the most graduates practicing in health professional shortage areas and 11th nationally for graduates practicing in rural areas.
UAMS was the only medical or osteopathic school in Arkansas to be recognized.
“We are proud to be recognized again as a national leader in educating and training graduates who go on to practice primary care and in rural areas,” said Steven A. Webber, M.D., executive vice chancellor of UAMS and dean of the College of Medicine. “We are working hard to generate more primary care physicians for communities across our state, to ensure all Arkansans have access to high-quality primary care. The latest Best Medical Schools rankings demonstrate our progress and success in this crucial area.”
The UAMS College of Medicine’s primary care ranking skyrocketed this year from the 2023 rankings, when it earned 17th place, which was an improvement from 36th place in the 2022 rankings. The medical school’s ranking for graduates practicing in rural areas also went up this year from the 2023 rankings, when it placed 18th. In the 2022 Best Medical School rankings, UAMS was ranked 20th in practicing in rural areas.
U.S. News listed UAMS as a Tier 1 medical school in primary care, based on an evaluation of data collected from 99 medical and osteopathic schools across the country that were fully accredited in 2024 by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) or the American Osteopathic Association.
U.S. News grouped the schools into four evaluative tiers this year, based on each school’s overall score, with Tier 1 schools being the highest performing. Tier 1 included schools with overall scores of 85-99, while Tier 2 schools had overall scores of 50 to 84. Schools in the last two tiers had overall scores ranging from 15-49 and 1-14.
U.S. News said it based the results on surveys it conducted in the winter of 2023-2024. It evaluated schools on faculty resources and the academic achievements of entering students. For primary care rankings, it also considered the proportion of graduates practicing in primary care specialties: family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, geriatrics, general practice or internal medicine pediatrics.
In June, after the initial submission period, schools were provided a second look at key data used in the computations, and some schools provided corrections.
Schools that didn’t report survey data to U.S. News in the fall of 2023 and early 2024, or had only provisional, preliminary or pre-accreditation status as of mid-winter, were unranked.
The full list of medical school rankings can be found at usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-medical-schools.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###