Ross University Responds To U.S. Primary Care Crisis - Two-Thirds Of Medical Graduates Choose Primary Care Specialty

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Also Included In: Medical Students / Training
Article Date: 19 Sep 2008 - 4:00 PDT

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Overwhelming numbers of Ross University School of Medicine graduates are responding to a deepening healthcare crisis by choosing to go into primary care. Without the crucial contributions of Caribbean institutions like Ross University, the fragile U.S. healthcare system would collapse.

A survey by the Journal of the American Medical Association reports that only two percent of U.S. graduating medical students plan to work in primary care. A University of Missouri study highlights a dramatic shortfall of primary care doctors --- up to 44,000 by 2025. Federal studies project a national shortage of 55,000 physicians by 2020.

Within this sobering context, Ross University places more graduates into U.S. Residencies than any medical school in the world. Nearly two-thirds of its graduates --- 64 percent --- choose primary care. Ross University is the top feeder of new U.S. doctors into Family Practice and Internal Medicine. Since its inception, Ross University has graduated more than 6,500 physicians.

Many of these graduates practice in underserved inner city and rural areas. 20 percent of its students --- more than double the U.S. average --- are under-represented minorities and 50 percent of its graduates are women.

About Ross University School of Medicine

Ross University, founded in 1978, is a provider of medical and veterinary education offering doctor of medicine and doctor of veterinary medicine degree programs. The School of Medicine is located in Dominica, West Indies and the School of Veterinary Medicine is located in St. Kitts. Ross announced it will open a new location in Freeport, Grand Bahama in 2009. The first four semesters of pre-clinical training are taught in Dominica over a 16-month period. Students complete their fifth semester, Advanced Introduction to Clinical Medicine, in Miami, Florida; Saginaw, Michigan; or Dominica. Semesters six through ten consist of core and elective clinical rotations in U.S. affiliated teaching hospitals. Ross University graduates are eligible to practice medicine in all 50 U.S. states, Canada and Puerto Rico upon successful completion of the requisite licensing examinations.

Ross University School of Medicine