Is an index of health possible?

The primary mission of a state-supported medical education is to produce physicians who will practice in that state. Medical school and residency graduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were compared as to how often they practice in the state after completing training. METHODS: Six hundred ninety-three medical student graduates from 1987 to 1991 were compared with 657 residency graduates from 1992 to 1996 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Chi-square was used to compare the groups as to the number of physicians produced who: 1) practice in Wisconsin and 2) practice primary care in Wisconsin. RESULTS: The residency training programs produced significantly more physicians (280) who practice in Wisconsin than did the medical school (246), X2 (df = 1) = 7.20, p < .01, and also significantly more primary care physicians, X2 (df = 1) = 6.16, p < .02. CONCLUSION: When this evidence-based information is used as a measure of medical education outcomes, residency training may be more effective at producing practicing physicians and should not be discounted when planning the educational and public health needs for the state of Wisconsin.