WWAMI: Good for Idaho

As a physician of 25 years based in Sandpoint, I’ve seen the impact of training Idaho medical students in the WWAMI program in my community. While many in our state benefit from Idaho’s original medical program, not everyone understands how it works or what a great deal it is for the state.

WWAMI is a community-based, high quality partnership between the University of Washington School of Medicine and rural Western states, including Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. For the past 46 years, WWAMI-Idaho has educated up to 40 Idaho first-year medical students in Moscow each year — doubling the number of students training in Idaho since 2008. At any given time, there are more than 100 student-doctors involved with WWAMI and affiliated programs in Idaho.

During their second year of training, most Idaho medical students spend a semester in Seattle at the internationally renowned UW, ranked No. 1 for rural medicine. During their third and fourth years, more than half the students return to Idaho for clinical rotations, mainly in rural communities. After graduation, students begin their residency, supervised by a practicing physician. Idaho currently has 22 placements for residencies, and WWAMI is actively working to increase that number to further address our state’s physician shortage.

Other medical training programs are starting in Spokane and Boise, but only WWAMI serves the needs of North Idaho. Please ask your legislators to support WWAMI so that we can train the next generation of Idaho physicians.

SCOTT DUNN

Sandpoint