The Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth was ranked as the top osteopathic school in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report, which released its annual list of best medical schools for primary care.
TCOM has now ranked as the top osteopathic school in the country two of the past three years.
TCOM ranked 36th among all medical schools across the country for primary care, up from 57th in 2021 and 72nd in 2020.
“We are committed to addressing the healthcare workforce needs of our state and our country,” says Dr. Frank Filipetto, Everett Endowed Professor and Dean of TCOM, in a statement. “Our Osteopathic roots have allowed us to grow and service the needs of our community through our graduate’s delivery of osteopathic primary care. I’m very proud of the incredible work by our faculty and staff to achieve this level recognition.”
According to the publication, the rankings are based on two types of data: expert opinions about program excellence and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research, and students.
The data for the rankings came from statistical surveys of more than 2,125 programs and from reputation surveys sent to more than 23,000 academics and professionals, conducted in fall 2020 and early 2021.
To gather the peer assessment data, U.S. News asked deans, program directors and senior faculty to judge the academic quality of programs in their field on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). U.S. News also surveyed professionals who hire or work with new graduates. The schools supplied U.S. News with the names for those surveyed for peer assessment and the professionals in each field in summer 2020.
Additional rankings by U.S. News placed TCOM at No. 11 in the nation for primary care production, up 10 spots from 2021, which was measured by the number graduates from 2013-15 practicing in primary care.
TCOM was ranked No. 45 in the nation out of 156 schools for graduates practicing in rural areas.
The school’s Office of Rural Medical Education, also known as the ROME program, has seen more than 70% of its graduates working in primary care, and TCOM’s Class of 2022 had 55% of its students match in primary care.