ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 16, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Starting this week, medical students across the country are asking themselves, "If you could go anywhere in the country to train for your chosen field of medicine, where would you go?"

According to new rankings, the University of Michigan should be near the top of those students' lists, no matter what kind of doctor they want to be.

Based on a survey of physicians by Doximity.com, the U-M Health System and its Medical School ranked #6 nationally, for excellence across 20 specialties.

The achievement is based on the number of residency training specialties that rank in the top 10 nationally - in U-M's case, it's 12. Only Massachusetts General Hospital, Johns Hopkins University, the University of California San Francisco, Brigham & Women's Hospital and the Mayo Clinic had more.

For students seeking to train in the Midwest, U-M is a top-tier choice in all 15 specialties ranked in Doximity's newly published regional lists. In five specialties, U-M residency programs are #1 in the region among those who took Doximity's survey.

Last fall, in Doximity's first rankings, survey respondents ranked U-M residency programs highly in all 20 ranked specialties, and even higher for new doctors seeking to train at large public hospitals.

The new rankings derive from board-certified physicians' answers to a survey about the best residency programs in their specialty. Each could name up to five. Nearly 3,700 residency programs were mentioned by more than 50,000 physicians.

For U-M's national & Midwest performance in each specialty, see below.

The release of the rankings comes just as this year's graduating medical students must start making a rank list of their own: listing the handful of sites where they want to train for their chosen discipline. On March 20, most students will open an envelope and learn where they will go, in a simultaneous national event called Match Day.

In addition to the rankings, Doximity is offering medical students and physicians access to additional data on each residency program in the 20 ranked specialties and in five other newly listed specialties: medical genetics, ophthalmology, preventive medicine, thoracic surgery and vascular surgery.

UMHS has the fourth-largest residency program in the U.S., according to Modern Healthcare, based on Medicare data. Training opportunities go well beyond the 25 specialties evaluated by Doximity: UMHS offers physicians clinical training in 105 accredited specialties, from primary care to highly advanced subspecialties.

Currently, nearly 1,200 residents are training in their specialty while helping to care for patients at U-M's Hospitals and Health Centers, under the supervision of U-M Medical School faculty physicians.

Additional facts about UMHS residency programs: 


    --  Some UMHS residency programs also give trainees the chance to learn and
        provide care at partner hospitals, including the VA Ann Arbor Health
        Care System, St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor Hospital, St. Joseph Mercy
        Chelsea Hospital and Hurley Medical Center in Flint.
    --  The reputation of UMHS training programs attracts a large number of
        medical residents and fellows (advanced residents) from other states,
        who move to Michigan for three to seven years of training. Two-thirds of
        each incoming class of residents comes from out of state.
    --  UMHS patients benefit from the expertise of residents and fellows, as
        well as the faculty physicians who supervise them. About one-third of
        UMHS residents are doing second or third residencies in complex
        specialties available at few other hospitals.
    --  After residency, doctors tend to practice near where they trained. About
        40 percent of U-M residents stay in Michigan - and most of those staying
        are not originally from Michigan.
    --  In recognition of the importance of this training, state and federal
        governments provide funds to teaching hospitals such as UMHS, to offset
        the costs associated with involving residents in patient care while also
        training them. UMHS receives funding for 765 residency slots, but
        supports additional positions as part of its educational and patient
        care mission.

Doximity's 2015 Residency Program rankings for UMHS are available at http://umhealth.me/doxres15

Rankings for all institutions and all specialties (some data visible only by physicians/medical students): http://umhealth.me/dox15

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/u-m-ranked-6-nationally-for-excellence-in-training-doctors-300021834.html

SOURCE University of Michigan Health System