BROWN MEDICAL SCHOOL: CLASS OF 2005

Medicine and Health Rhode Island,  Aug 2005  by Smith, Stephen R,  Bell, Rose,  Viticonte, Janice

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On May 29, 2005, 73 men and women received the Doctor of Medicine degree from Brown University representing the 31st class of physicians graduated from that institution since 1975. Of the 2312 physician graduates of previous classes, approximately 416 (18%) are currently licensed to practice in Rhode Island.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the graduates of the MD Class of 2005 to the physician community in Rhode Island, as many will be your future professional colleagues.

A PORTRAIT OF THE CLASS OF '05

Thirty-four graduates were men (47%) and 39 were women (53%). The racial/ethnic composition of the class, as shown in Table 1, shows a lower proportion of students from CaucasianAmerican backgrounds (42%) than the previous year (45%). Nineteen percent of the graduates are members of minority groups underrepresented in medicine (10 African Americans, and 4 Mexican American) as defined by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). This number is higher than the 9.2% underrepresented minorities (URM) reported for last year's graduates. The proportion of URM students among all four years of Brown medical students is 19%.

Nine graduates are residents of Rhode Island. The Rhode Island students in this year's graduating class came from eight different communities in the state, with two students from Providence, and one student each from Bradford, E. Greenwich, E. Providence, Newport, Portsmouth, Riverside, and Westerly. The high schools from which the students graduated also reflect this diversity, with students having attended Classical, Claremont, E. Greenwich, Rogers, St. Mary Academy-Bayview, St. Paul's, and Westerly high schools.

The largest proportion of students in the MD Class of 2005 comes from the Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME), with 41 such graduates (56%) having come through that route. The second largest cohort of students (12 graduates) came through the combined Brown-Dartmouth Medical Education Program in which students spend their first two years of medical school at Dartmouth, then transfer to Brown for the final two years.

The medical school entered into special agreements with postbaccalaureate premedical programs at Bryn Mawr College and Columbia University shortly after the PLME was inaugurated. Students from these programs decided upon a career in medicine only after completing college. Typically, they have been engaged in other careers for several years following college. The goals in establishing this new route of admission were to maintain a rich diversity in the student body by admitting students who were older and who had different academic and life experiences as well as rounding out the total class size to compensate for the expected attrition from the PLME. Six members (8%) of the class were postbaccalaureate students, three from Bryn Mawr College and three from Columbia University.

Among the remainder of the class, six students were part of the Early Identification Program (EIP), three from Tougaloo College, two from Providence College, and one student from University of Rhode Island. EIP students are offered provisional admission to the medical school during their sophomore year at their respective undergraduate colleges. Of the remaining graduates, three entered medical school through the MD/PhD program, two through the Brown Avenue (current or former Brown students who were not in the PLME), and three through advanced transfer.

Brown University was the most common undergraduate college among the graduates accounting for 44 graduates. Tougaloo College came second with three members, followed by Haverford College, Providence College, and University of California Berkeley each with two members from the Class of 2005.

The most common undergraduate major (56%) among the class members was biology (including subdisciplines such as biochemistry, neural sciences, and microbiology). Science majors taken together (including psychology) accounted for 72% of all majors, while 18% of majors were in the humanities and 12% in the social sciences. Among the humanities majors, English was the most common choice, while community health was the most popular choice among those majoring in the social sciences. Nine students double majored.

WHERE THEY ARE GOING

Internal medicine remained the most frequently selected specialty, with 32 students selecting that specialty, and family medicine came in second place with 7 graduates choosing that specialty. Table 2 lists the number of students selecting different types of residency programs.

The proportion of the class entering specialties in primary care fell to 44% this year, continuing a 4-year slide. This includes the fields of internal medicine, pediatrics, family practice, medicine/pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology. Figure 1 illustrates the specialty choices of the Class of 2005.

The actual number of graduates who will eventually practice primary care after completing their graduate medical education will be smaller than the 44% reported here. Based on previous data from the AAMC that tracked graduates, approximately 22 graduates (30%) will actually practice primary care.