A GW School of Medicine study published this week ranked 141 medical schools across the country not according to prestige or research funding, but according to their “social mission.” The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was the subject of a New York Times article Thursday.

GW faculty members Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan, Dr. Candice Chen, and Gretchen Kolsky, along with two other researchers, determined each school’s “social mission score” by combing the percentages of graduates who work in underserved communities, are primary care physicians, and are minorities.

The highest-ranked medical school was Morehouse College in Georgia. Howard ranked third, the only school in the District of Columbia to place in the top 20.

GW was ranked in 60th place and Georgetown was ranked 110th.

The study ranked several of the nation’s top research schools at the bottom of their list, including Columbia University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pennsylvania. Tennessee’s Vanderbilt University was the lowest ranked.

“The absolute irreducible mission of medical schools is the education and graduation of doctors to care for the country as a whole,” Mullan told the Times. “U.S. medical education has drifted over to this highly rarified and specialized focus that has resulted in some major shortfalls.”