Pictured: The 2019 rankings of JABSOM among 177 medical schools, according to U.S. News & World Report
JABSOM faculty out-perform many top ten research schools in NIH funding per full-time faculty member
By Tina Shelton JABSOM Communications Director
The 2019 rankings for the Best Medical Schools in America were released at 6 p.m. HST on March 19, 2018 by U.S. News & World Report.
The magazine ranks the University of Hawaiʻi-Mānoa (UHM) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) #41 in Medical Research for 2019, tied with the University of Florida and the University of Utah; and just ahead of Dartmouth and the University of Cincinnati.
Our faculty did even better in attracting research dollars to Hawaiʻi.
UH-JABSOM Faculty brought in $334-thousand dollars per full-time faculty member in National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding, according to the magazine. That was higher than earned per full-time faculty member at Johns Hopkins University ($257,000 per faculty member, Research ranking #2), at UCLA ($239,000 per faculty member, Research ranking 8-tie), Duke ($263-thousand per faculty member, Research ranking #10) and several other of the schools near the top of the 2019 Medical Research rankings. The highly ranked medical schools which achieved more NIH funding per faculty member than JABSOM included Stanford ($399,000 per faculty member, Research ranking #3-tie) the New York University ($354-thousand per faculty member, Research ranking #3-tie) and the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine ($400,000 per faculty member, Research ranking #6).
“Rankings are never perfect,” said JABSOM Director of Research Dr. Mariana Gerschenson. “We appreciate the recognition given to our faculty for their extraordinary ability to compete for research funding that has a beneficial effect on healthcare in Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiʻi economy.”
“The smaller number of full-time faculty members at JABSOM does limit total research dollar acquisition in Hawaiʻi and our national ranking in this category,” said Dr. Jerris Hedges, JABSOM Dean.
U.S. News ranks UH-JABSOM #59 in Medical Primary Care for 2019, tied with Rush University and just ahead of Michigan State University, the University of Tennessee, and Wake Forest University.
Read more about the newsmagazine rankings.
The news magazine’s annual rankings come on the heels of very impressive data compiled this year by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), finding JABSOM outperforms 90% of all accredited medical schools in the percentage of its graduates performing primary care. JABSOM also ranked very high (Top 25%) in its graduates, once fully-trained practicing medicine in-state.
The AAMC data shows among all accredited medical schools in the U.S. and Canada, the UH medical school is:
• In the top 25% of all accredited schools for the percentage of its graduates who are practicing medicine here in Hawaiʻi
• In the top 10% of all accredited schools whose graduates are now practicing in primary care medicine (front-line treatment of patients)
• In the top 25% of all accredited schools whose graduates currently in residency training plan to practice in Family Medicine
• Is the leader among all accredited schools for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander graduates
• In the top 10% among all accredited schools for its proportion of women faculty members
• In the top 25% of all accredited schools for basic science instruction with clinical relevance, student satisfaction and metrics related to diversity, cultural awareness and health disparities focus
“Both the number of students who choose primary care specialties and the number who remain or return to treat patients in Hawaiʻi after completing their training are critical to stemming the growing shortage of physicians in our state,” said Dean Hedges.
The AAMC is comprised of all 151 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies.
“Primary Care” fields include Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and can also include Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology physicians and Geriatric Medicine physicians. To become members of these fields, medical school graduates undertake postgraduate training from between three to eight years, or longer if they further specialize in Fellowship programs. The University of Hawaiʻi (JABSOM) oversees 17 accredited Postgraduate Residency and Fellowship training programs, with some 225 MDs training within medical centers designated as teaching hospitals throughout the state.
JABSOM partner teaching hospitals including those of The Queen’s Health Systems, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health (Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children, Pali Momi Medical Center, Straub Medical Center), Kuakini Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Tripler Army Medical Center, Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific, Shriners Hospital for Children, Wahiawā General Hospital, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health and multiple other sites.