Dear Colleagues,

For the 10th consecutive year, the U.S.News & World Report annual graduate and professional school rankings, released this morning, have ranked the UW School of Medicine No. 1 in primary-care training.

In the U.S. News analysis of National Institutes of Health (NIH) federal funding, the UW School of Medicine ranked first in the nation among public medical schools, and second overall after Harvard Medical School. U.S. News records the UW School of Medicine as receiving $431.5 million in NIH funding in fiscal year 2002. This represents an increase from the previous year of more than 17.3 percent.

Each year U.S. News conducts a national survey of medical school deans and senior faculty members to measure institutions' reputations in teaching specific medical disciplines. In 2003, the UW School of Medicine's training efforts in rural medicine ranked No. 1 for the 12th year in a row. In addition, family medicine ranked No. 1 for the 10th consecutive year. This year women's health rose in the rankings to tie with Duke University at No. 5. Also ranking higher this year were geriatrics, internal medicine, and pediatrics. All three ranked at No. 6. The survey results ranked the school No. 5 in AIDS training for the second year in a row.

The bioengineering graduate program, jointly managed by the College of Engineering and the School of Medicine, ranked No. 5 for the second year in a row. Special congratulations to the other UW health sciences schools whose graduate programs were newly ranked highly this year, including the School of Nursing, which ranked No. 1, and the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, which ranked No.4.

The dedication of faculty and staff to research and teaching, and the caliber of UW School of Medicine graduates are reflected in this year's U.S. News rankings. Thank you for your outstanding work in your teaching, research, and patient care activities. UW Medicine is fortunate to have so many people who have committed their professional lives to our mission of improving the health of the public.

Paul G. Ramsey, M.D.
Vice President for Medical Affairs
And Dean of the School of Medicine