LITTLE ROCK – The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) College of Medicine ranked third in the nation in the American Psychiatric Association 2004-2005 Resident Census for the number of graduates going into residencies in psychiatry.

UAMS had 14 graduates go into psychiatry residencies, behind the University of California in San Francisco and the University of Illinois, both of which had 18 graduates go into psychiatry residencies. UAMS ranked fourth for the percentage of post-graduate first-year residencies in psychiatry, with 10.4 percent of the class choosing the field. The rankings were out of 125 accredited medical schools granting medical degrees in the United States.

“These numbers reflect very positively on the undergraduate and graduate medical education programs, the residents and the faculty at UAMS,” said Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Chairman G. Richard Smith, M.D., who holds the Marie Wilson Howells chair.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has more than 2,200 students and 660 residents and is the state’s largest public employer with almost 9,000 employees. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $4.3 billion a year.

UAMS centers of excellence are the Arkansas Cancer Research Center, Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy and Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute.