The University of Colorado School of Medicine is a top-tier research institution in the United States, according to rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. Only 16 medical schools are included in the top tier.
The tier system is a change from rankings provided in the past by U.S. News. In previous years, U.S. News assigned specific numerical ranks to each medical school. This year, U.S. News is listing schools alphabetically within tiers and has discontinued numerical rankings.
“To be ranked in the top tier acknowledges the productivity and success of CU School of Medicine faculty,” says John Sampson, MD, PhD, MBA, dean of the CU School of Medicine. “We are very proud that our research work is recognized among the best of the best.”
In last year’s U.S. News rankings, the CU School of Medicine ranked No. 26 for research, so to be among the top 16 is a substantial jump.
Similarly, U.S. News discontinued its numerical ranking of medical schools as primary care institutions. In that category, CU has historically ranked among the best. Last year, CU ranked No. 8. This year’s listing of primary care schools shows CU School of Medicine in the second grouping of 34 medical schools, which are listed alphabetically, following a top tier that includes 15 schools.
U.S. News posts on its website the methodology for how it evaluates medical schools. Each year, U.S. News asks medical school leaders to fill out a survey that includes data about research grant funding, student admissions, and school curriculum. Notably, several institutions, such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Duke University, and University of Washington, are not included this year because they declined to fill out the most recent survey.
To determine the tier for research, U.S. News relies heavily on federal research grants awarded to faculty. For primary care, U.S. News had relied on peer and residency director assessments, but phased out those measures this year. This year, U.S. News put more emphasis on “primary care production indicators” that were mostly outsourced to the American Academy of Family Physicians.
“We will review how U.S. News changed its method of ranking medical schools for primary care so we can ensure that we are properly recognized as one of the nation’s best programs in this category too,” Sampson says.
Another major change announced today by U.S. News was that it would no longer rank medical school specialties, such as surgery and psychiatry. U.S. News said it discontinued those rankings because their data collection had relied on peer assessment surveys that it no longer is conducting. Many of the CU School of Medicine’s programs have routinely ranked among the best in these specialty rankings.
