Statement from Dr. Timothy H. Dellit, Interim CEO, UW Medicine, Interim Dean of the UW School of Medicine, and Interim Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Washington:
The University of Washington School of Medicine will no longer contribute data to U.S. News & World Report for its medical school rankings beginning in 2024. While we have submitted our data for this year, we believe it is important to join other medical schools including Harvard Medical School, the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford Medical School and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in ending this practice.
This decision follows careful consideration and discussion with UW School of Medicine leadership, and is a reflection on who we are, and strive to be. The U.S. News ranking process does not align with our goals of creating an inclusive learning environment and developing a diverse and culturally humble workforce. The emphasis on prestige and reputation without any objective evaluation of the quality of education is discordant with our vision for the future of medicine. Similarly, the sole focus on standardized scores and grades does not reflect our holistic admission process and the importance of diverse life experiences. Instead, this emphasis perpetuates inherent bias.
We appreciate and recognize that we have done well in the U.S. News primary-care and research school rankings, which reflected our high proportion of medical school graduates going into primary care and our success in federal research funding, respectively. However, we believe that together with other medical schools, we can help to define more meaningful metrics that will reflect the impact of our medical school graduates in serving our communities and advancing scientific discovery.
We remain committed to transparency and accountability for sharing objective information about our school and what we offer for potential applicants. We will continue to share information reflecting our values on our medical school website as a resource for students as they make decisions about the best medical school for their education, research and training. We are also committed to working with other medical schools to develop new and better measures that are valid, meaningful, and reflect our values. Importantly, the decision we announce today does not have any bearing on our participation in the U.S. News Best Hospitals rankings, which is a separate survey from the medical school rankings and uses different methodologies.
UW Medicine and its UW School of Medicine are proud to have a unique medical education role across the WWAMI region of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Central to all of our work across these five states is our mission to improve the health of the public through the advancement of medical education, scientific discovery, access to high-quality health care, and the promotion of social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. We look forward to working with the UW School of Medicine community in collaboration with colleagues around the country to transparently develop metrics that can be shared publicly and meaningfully reflect who we are and the values that guide us.
