The UC Davis School of Medicine has been named as one of the top institutions in the country for training students to practice in primary care settings.

According to the annual “Best Medical Schools” rankings released today by U.S. News & World Report, UC Davis is in the Tier 1, or top, category for its leadership in educating students to work as primary care doctors.

In addition, the publication ranked UC Davis as No. 22 in the country for medical school graduates who practice in primary care settings (up from No. 37 the year before).

The rankings are a testament to the success the UC Davis School of Medicine has achieved for years in training students, residents and fellows to help fill a workforce shortage of primary care physicians.

About half of the students in each UC Davis graduating medical school class enters a primary care residency. Students want to take care of the Californians who most need them, which often means working in underserved areas such as the Central Valley and rural Northern California. Doctors who specialize in internal medicine and family medicine are in short supply in many inland areas of California, in places where vulnerable populations suffer from poor health.

“The UC Davis School of Medicine continues to be a national leader in training the physician workforce needed to meet the needs of our diverse communities and advance health equity — especially in primary care,” said Susan Murin, interim dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine. “These rankings also show we continue to be among the leading medical research institutions committed to improving health and transforming lives.”

U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings also place the UC Davis School of Medicine as the fourth most diverse in the country, behind three well-respected historically Black colleges and universities.

U.S. News has included a medical school diversity ranking for several years, which shows what the future workforce will look like. Studies have shown that patients have better health outcomes when their doctors share a similar culture, background or language as their patients.

Of the recent graduating class, 54% of students matched into primary care residencies

The UC Davis School of Medicine, which opened to students in 1968, is one of the newer medical schools in the country. It has earned a growing reputation for its primary care training, drawing student applicants from historically underrepresented backgrounds and increasing research funding from federal and private sources.

The school reached a record-high $401 million in external research funding last year, and according to the new U.S. News rankings, was placed in Tier 2 for research.

Many medical students apply to UC Davis because of the school’s emphasis on teaching the next generation of physicians to care for primary care patients. And because a large share of students come from underserved communities with a physician shortage, many are eager to return to those locations to practice medicine.

More than half (54%) of UC Davis medical students who graduated in May have since entered residency programs to train for careers in primary care.

U.S. News bases its rankings on two types of data: expert opinion about program excellence, and statistical indicators including the quality of a school’s faculty, research and students and their post-graduate outcomes.

The annual rankings compiled by U.S. News & World Report have undergone a shift in methodology the past two years, due to feedback from medical schools across the country. As a result, some of the rankings emphasize the grouping of schools in tiers, as opposed to the traditional method of numerical rankings.