An AAMC report card on mission management
Every year since 2009, the Association of American Medical Colleges has provided U.S. and Canadian medical schools with a report to help gauge how well they are performing in relation to their mission. Not all medical schools have the same mission, but the report gives them an opportunity to see how they compare with others in the areas that are vital to their goals and objectives.
As the Florida State University College of Medicine prepares to graduate its 10th class, the recently released Missions Management Tool (MMT) offers an unbiased endorsement of the school’s outcomes and performance.
The College of Medicine’s mission is to be responsive to community needs, especially through service to elder, rural, minority and underserved populations. In other words, to produce the physicians Florida needs most.
In comparison with more than 140 other AAMC-member medical schools, the FSU College of Medicine is among the top programs for:
• Graduating a workforce that will address the priority health needs of the nation.
• Preparing physicians to fulfill the needs of the community.
• Graduating African-American physicians.
• Providing instruction in community health.
• Providing field experiences in community health.
• Providing instruction in culturally appropriate care.
• Producing primary care physicians.
Twice in the past five years, the FSU College of Medicine was rated as the top medical school in the country in providing instruction in community health, where the majority of patients receive their health care. The other three years? The College of Medicine ranked in the 99th percentile.
The key to producing more physicians who will work in communities with access-to-care problems is to give them exposure while in medical school to patients who are medically underserved. That way, they see the needs first-hand and are more likely to want to work where they are needed the most.
That has proved to be true in what is perhaps the College of Medicine’s crowning achievement to date: the quality and type of alumni physicians now caring for patients across Florida.
In addition to the 18 new primary care physicians who see patients in Tallahassee, College of Medicine alumni are caring for patients in numerous Panhandle communities that have historically struggled to recruit new doctors. Among them: Crestview, Bonifay, Apalachicola, Pace, Perry and Quincy. Our students are learning in the community setting, and are returning to those communities to practice.
For details about the College of Medicine's alumni outcomes, click 'additional information' below and see Pages 8-11.