<p>What does "Primary Care" constitute? A friend told me it meant having contact with patients. If so, aren't primary care rankings more important for people who actually want to be doctors since you'll be seeing patients instead of doing research? Or are there doctors who end up doing research instead of dealing with patients? My friend was telling me that, for example, graduating from University of Washington's Med school would make you a better doctor than graduating from Yale's Med school since UW's focuses more on primary care than research.</p>
<p>Thank you,
ansar</p>
<p>BTW, I know I should just try to get into a Med school and that I shouldn't focus on rankings, but I'd just like to know why there's these different rankings and if a primary care school will help you become a better doctor than a research school.</p>
<p>1.) No, your friend is wrong. Primary Care constitutes physicians who (in theory) act as “gatekeepers” before a specialist is consulted. So for example, if your son has a stomachache, and you take him to see his general pediatrician, that pediatrician is a primary care physician. That primary care physician might then suggest that you consult a gastroenterologist (a specialist), who would not be primary care.</p>
<p>2.) Specialists also see and care for patients.</p>
<p>3.) There are some MD’s who only do research. They’re relatively rare, but they do exist. For those physicians, the research rankings are the relevant ones.</p>
<p>4.) Even if you intend to do primary care, however, USN’s primary care rankings are VERY badly constructed and are highly unreliable. They are based off of foolish criteria and vary a great deal, year-to-year.</p>
<p>5.) With that said, I believe UW is ranked ahead of Yale in both the Research and the Primary Care rankings. UW is an excellent medical school in every respect.</p>
<p>6.) What most students are interested in would be a “Specialty” ranking, which USN doesn’t publish.</p>
Very informative post.</p>