<p>Despite the growing outcry among doctors and organized medical groups about everything from what they are paid to hassles with insurance companies, young people are flocking to medical schools in record numbers.</p>
<p>For the second consecutive year, the number of students enrolled in U.S. medical schools increased "significantly," according to a report released Wednesday by the Association of American Medical Colleges, a trade group representing the nation's medical schools and teaching hospitals.</p>
<p>The Washington-based association said first-time enrollees in the incoming 2006 class increased 2.2 percent to nearly 17,400--a record.</p>
<p>Medical schools say the high number of first-year medical students is important because enrollment in medical schools has stayed "relatively constant over the past two decades or more," an association spokeswoman said.</p>
<p>The news is good for medical schools and potentially patients because universities and teaching hospitals say they need to boost enrollment to avoid a physician shortage.</p>
<p>"These latest figures clearly indicate that medicine remains a compelling career option for more and more well-qualified students," said the association's president, Dr. Darrell G. Kirch. "With the looming doctor shortage, these results are good news indeed, and we hope this encouraging trend continues."</p>
<p>Locally, the association listed Rush Medical College of Rush University Medical Center on Chicago's West Side among a group of 14 medical schools with the largest increases in first-year enrollment. Rush's first-year enrollment jumped 9.4 percent, to 140 first-year students from 128 in 2005.</p>
<p>Other schools with what the association considered "large increases" include Florida State University College of Medicine (36.3 percent); Brown (University) Medical School (24.7 percent); Boston University School of Medicine (15.5 percent); and St. Louis University School of Medicine (15 percent).</p>
<p>For more, see: <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0610190098oct19,0,6222204.story?coll=chi-business-hed%5B/url%5D">http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0610190098oct19,0,6222204.story?coll=chi-business-hed</a></p>