In only the second year that the UMKC School of Medicine has submitted information for the U.S. News and World Report’s Best Graduate Schools rankings, the school again is positioned among the nation’s best medical schools.

The school jumped 11 places, to 64th, in the ranking of primary care medical schools, and rose five places, to 83rd, for research medical schools.

The school also was recognized in the magazine's new rankings for service in underserved areas, rural medicine and diversity.

The magazine requested data from 191 U.S. schools of medicine or osteopathy and received responses from 129. Not all of those were ranked in every area, however, because of insufficient data or less-than-final accreditation.

“Our mission to train primary care physicians for the state of Missouri was again recognized by USNWR, as was our growing research enterprise,” said Dean Mary Anne Jackson, a 1978 graduate of the UMKC School of Medicine. “Moving into the top one-third of schools for primary care is quite an accomplishment, and the school’s advances in research reflect our commitment to linking patient care outcomes to our research vision.”

Jackson added that the school has seen an increase in the number of research awards and dollars to support efforts in UMKC’s areas of strength such as neurosciences, vision science, maternal fetal health, pediatrics, intervention science, surgical safety and metabolomics.

Both the primary care and research rankings are based on a weighted average of several indicators — some quality assessments by academic peers and residency directors, others objective data such as research funding, faculty-student ratios and student test scores. The primary care rankings incorporate two measures of graduates going into primary care. The research rankings include two measures of research productivity.

For three new category rankings, the school placed 17th in the percentage of graduates practicing in underserved areas; 65th in the percentage of graduates providing direct patient care in rural areas; and 86th in the diversity rankings.

The school recently boosted its emphasis on rural medicine and underserved areas of Missouri by opening a second campus in St. Joseph, and it has been bolstering its diversity and inclusion infrastructure and recruiting.