Idaho’s WWAMI Medical Education Program is a partnership with the University of Washington School of Medicine and the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Since 1972, WWAMI has successfully educated many of Idaho’s physicians, with an acute focus on rural medicine. The WWAMI program is nationally accredited through its partnership with the UW School of Medicine, allowing 40 Idaho medical students to complete their first and second year of medical training at the University of Idaho. Medical students may complete their Clinical Phase of medical education in Idaho, Seattle or across the 5-state WWAMI region.

WWAMI is a medical school program, not a premedical program. Students who enter the program are dual enrolled at the University of Idaho and the University of Washington School of Medicine and complete their Foundations Phase (18 months) of medical school. This includes seven blocks and three threads taught by Clinical Skills Instructors and Foundations Guides, both on campus and in the community. The curriculum at each WWAMI site has been standardized and is compatible with the University of Washington School of Medicine curriculum which integrates the basic and clinical sciences and includes rural health care at an early time in medical education.

The WWAMI Medical Education Program has five primary goals for the State of Idaho:

• Provide publicly supported medical education
• Increase the number of primary care physicians 
• Provide community-based medical education
• Expand graduate medical education (residency training) and continuing medical education
• Provide all of this in a cost-effective manner

The Idaho WWAMI program has an excellent rate of return with over 50 percent of its graduates returning to Idaho and many choosing a career in primary care medicine, locating their practices in the non-metropolitan areas.