Posted on March 30, 2007 at 4:35 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Five medical specialties within the UAB School of Medicine are ranked in the top 20 nationally by U.S. News & World Report in its graduate school rankings released March 30: AIDS, 5th; women's health, 13th; internal medicine, 13th; geriatrics, 16th; and pediatrics, 20th. The master's degree program in health care management in the School of Health Professions is ranked 7th.

The School of Public Health is ranked 16th and the School of Nursing is ranked 26th with two specialties ranked, family nurse practitioner 11th and nursing-anesthesia 32nd.

The School of Medicine is ranked 27th in the research category, tied with Mount Sinai School of Medicine and the University of Wisconsin - Madison. It ranked 34th in the primary care category, ahead of Mayo Medical School and Emory University.

Each year, U.S. News & World Report ranks professional-school programs in business, education, engineering, law and medicine. The rankings are based on expert opinion about program quality and statistical indicators that measure the quality of a school's faculty, research and students. For the rankings in all five areas, indicator and opinion data come from surveys of more than 1,200 programs and some 9,600 academics and professionals.

The magazine also ranks programs in the sciences, social sciences and humanities on a rotating basis, usually every three years. These rankings are based solely on the ratings of academic experts, as are the health specialties.