For more information contact: Boonshoft School of Medicine, Judi Engle, Office of Public Relations, (937) 775-2951

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 18, 2001

Wright State Leads Nation in Family Medicine Ranking

DAYTON,OH--Wright State University School of Medicine ranked first in the nation in the percentage of its graduates (32.5%) entering family medicine residencies in 1998-2000. Wright State was one of only two medical schools nationwide to be awarded the prestigious Family Practice Gold Achievement Award from the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) in 2001. This is the fourth consecutive year that Wright State has received the Gold Achievement Award.

"This award recognizes Wright State's outstanding efforts to steward student interest in family practice and produce graduates who enter the specialty," says Perry A. Puhno, M.D., director of the AAFP's Division of Medical Education. Founded in 1947, the AAFP represents more than 93,100 family physicians, family practice residents and medical students nationwide.

"Wright State medical students have contact with family medicine faculty throughout all four years of the medical school curriculum. As a result, they learn that family medicine isn't simply treating colds and sore throats. It's an in-depth intellectual challenge to provide medical care for individuals and families across the age range," explains Mark Clasen, M.D., Ph.D., Wright State's chair of family medicine.

Clasen notes that Wright State has ranked at or near the top in family medicine ever since its first graduating class in 1980. According to a 1992 survey published in the medical journal Family Medicine, Wright State was first in the percentage of graduates entering family practice residencies throughout the previous decade. Throughout the 1990s, Wright State consistently ranked in the top three of 125 medical schools nationwide in the broader percentage of graduates starting practice in primary care medicine, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

"Wright State has become a premiere medical school in primary care education," Clasen says. "In addition to family medicine, Wright State has prepared many graduates for the other primary care disciplines, general internal medicine and general pediatrics."

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