Magazine ranks ECU among top primary care medical schools

GREENVILLE, N.C.—   The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University is ranked among the top medical schools in the country that emphasize primary care, according to the annual listing of the top graduate schools by U.S. News & World Report magazine. 

ECU is 28th overall among primary care schools this year. In the rural medicine subcategory, the school ranks seventh. ECU also sent the seventh-highest percentage of its graduates, 53.3 percent, into primary care residencies between 2006 and 2008. U.S. News defines primary care as family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine. 

The U.S. News rankings of U.S. professional and graduate schools will be available on newsstands Tuesday, April 28. In medicine, the magazine considered the 126 accredited U.S. medical schools and 20 schools of osteopathic medicine. 

This year, the University of Washington again was rated the top primary care school. Harvard University ranked first among medical schools that emphasize research.

Rankings for primary care schools are based on a weighted average of seven indicators, four of them common for research- and primary care-focused schools. The primary care model also considered the number of graduates entering primary care residencies.