UW News

May 6, 1997

University of Washington School of Medicine honored nationally for percentage of graduates entering family practice residencies

The University of Washington (UW) was one of only three medical schools in the nation to maintain a three-year average of more than 30 percent in the rate of graduates entering family practice residencies from 1993 to 1996.
In recognition of the school’s success in encouraging medical student interest in primary-care residency training, the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine presented the University of Washington with a Gold Award on May 5 during the annual meeting of the professional academies in Boston.

University of South Dakota School of Medicine, with a three-year average of 35.1 percent, and the University of Iowa College of Medicine, with a 32.7 percent average, also received Gold Awards. A number of other medical schools received Silver and Bronze Awards.

The past and present heads of the UW’s Predoctoral Division of the Department of Family Medicine, Dr. Michael Gordon, professor of family medicine, and Dr. Kathleen Ellsbury, associate professor of family medicine, accepted the award for the UW. The UW’s average was 30.4 percent, with a record 36 percent set for the school in 1996.

The division is noted for its programs to familiarize students with family practice in places in need of doctors, such as rural towns, inner cities and clinics for populations overlooked by the health-care system. It’s also highly regarded for the excell ent training provided to medical students by family physicians in communities throughout the five-state region of Alaska, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyoming — the WWAMI states.

For the past four years, the annual U.S. News & World Report survey of graduate and professional schools has named the UW Department of Family Medicine the best in the nation in teaching medical students about family practice.

The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine is a professional organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of education in family practice.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) represents more than 84,000 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students from across the nation. Family practice is a primary-care medical field that attends to the health needs of peop le of all ages and both genders, provides preventive as well as curative care and works in partnership with patients and their families.