Idaho’s WWAMI Medical Education Program is a partnership between 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. 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 at the University of Idaho.

The curriculum taught at each WWAMI site, including the Seattle site, is a joint product of the University of Washington School of Medicine. While each site has its own unique instructors and may have specific offerings, such as the wilderness medicine elective offered to Idaho and Seattle students, all WWAMI students learn the same core curriculum at the same time.

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.