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KU School of Medicine is No. 1 in graduates entering family medicine programs

According to a report prepared by the American Academy of Family Physicians on the percentage of each U.S. medical school's graduates entering family medicine residency programs in 2005, the KU School of Medicine ranked first, both in the number, 39, and the percentage, 22.8 percent. The KU School of Medicine also had the highest three-year average at 21.1 percent for the period ending in June 2005.

"While, unfortunately, the number of graduates nationally choosing family medicine has declined in recent years, I'm pleased to see the KU School of Medicine honoring its 100-year tradition of preparing graduates to serve their communities," said Joshua Freeman, professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine. Freeman was recently named a Bishop fellow for the 2007-08 academic year by the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Foundation, which fosters leadership among family medicine faculty.

Nearly half of U.S. medical school graduates who entered a family medicine residency program in 2005 stayed in the same state for their residency.

KU was close to the national average with 44.7 percent.

"During their third and fourth years in Wichita, many of our medical students learn community medicine from those physicians who do it best," said Rick Kellerman, professor and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the School of Medicine-Wichita. Kellerman is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. "Because of the value of their experience here, 40 percent of our students chose family medicine residencies in 2005," he said.

According to the academy's report, medical school graduates from the 76 publicly funded medical schools were more likely to be first-year family medicine residents in October 2005 than were residents from the 48 privately funded schools, 9.9 percent compared with 5.8 percent.

"Countries with primary care physicians as the foundation of the health care system have better health outcomes for the population at lower cost," the academy's report concluded. "The United States needs, and its population deserves, a primary care physician-based health care delivery system."

The entire report is available at www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2006/October/Perry626.pdf.

TOPONYMS

In February 1948, KU alumnus and physician Franklin D. Murphy, 32, was appointed dean of the School of Medicine and in 1951 he succeeded Deane W. Malott as chancellor. Murphy, who left KU in 1960, was a lifelong arts patron, and he advocated strongly for a badly needed music and theatre building; when it was dedicated Nov. 10, 1957, it was named for him.