The Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM) vaulted from 29th to 19th in national rankings for primary care medical schools this year according to U.S. News & World Report for 2011. This is the college's ninth consecutive appearance in the top 50 and the best ranking in TCOM's 40-year history. TCOM has the third-highest percentage of graduates entering primary care residencies in the nation.

In addition, TCOM ranked 11th in training family medicine physicians, 15th in training physicians specializing in geriatrics, and 22nd in training rural medicine doctors.

"TCOM has made tremendous strides in the past few years," said Don Peska, DO and dean of TCOM. "Our commitment to training the best primary care physicians and serving both rural and urban Texans has carried over into innovative new training procedures and world-class physicians."

Each year, U.S. News & World Report ranks professional school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine. The rankings are based on expert opinion about program performance and statistical indicators that measure the quality of the school's faculty, research and students.

To gather the opinion data, U.S. News & World Report surveyed deans, program directors and senior faculty to judge the academic quality of programs in their field on a scale of 1, which was marginal, to 5, which is outstanding. Professionals who hire new graduates were surveyed for the rankings.

The print version of U.S. News & World Report will be published April 27.

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