William Carey University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine remains one of the top academic medical institutions in the country.
For the fifth straight year, the Hattiesburg-based school has found itself among some of the top programs in the U.S. when it comes to graduating primary care physicians and sending medical professionals to rural and underserved areas.
An April release from U.S. News and World Report ranked William Carey in the top three in three “Best Graduate Schools of Medicine” categories. The school landed at No. 1 for the highest percentage of graduates practicing in primary care, No. 3 for the highest percentage of graduates serving in rural areas, and No. 3 for the highest percentage of graduates practicing in areas with shortages of health professionals. More than 350 medical schools across the nation were assessed in the rankings.
“We focus on creating doctors in primary care because that’s the mission, and that’s where Mississippi needs those doctors the most, especially in the rural areas,” William Carey President Dr. Ben Burnett said on Wednesday. “Rural Mississippi is important to me personally, but it’s also important to us as an institution.”
The College of Osteopathic Medicine is a 70,000-square-foot facility that features a large medicine lab and an ultrasound skills lab. It includes a patient encounter center, a multi-purpose training room, a large conference center for medical gatherings, and two classrooms capable of seating 260 students each.
In addition to teaching student doctors, William Carey’s Charles W. Pickering Institute for Primary Care can also help practicing physicians advance their training and certifications – and partner with them on community-based solutions.
Dr. Burnett, a native of Rolling Fork and a longtime Hattiesburg resident, said school officials have made primary care, particularly in rural areas, a main area of focus because of the university’s namesake, William Carey, and the role he played in tending to the underserved.
Carey was an English Christian minister known as “the father of modern missions.” His work included ministering to people in India for more than four decades by establishing educational institutes and helping end the practice of burning widows.
“Dr. William Carey, who was the first modern missionary, served the underserved. He left his home country of England, went to India, and ministered there for over 40 years to people who nobody else cared about,” Burnett explained. “So, primary care and rural areas are the two greatest ways we feel like we can do that, and we now have a state-of-the-art facility.”
Since opening in 2010, William Carey’s College of Osteopathic Medicine has graduated more than 1,300 physicians with more than 70% going on to practice in primary care specialties.