WWAMI: Change would be roadblock to education

The Sunday Op-Ed in The Press is the basis for this letter.

At the outset I will note that I have been involved with WWAMI for nearly 40 years. My family Foundation is the largest supporter of medical scholarships at both UW and UI. We are focused on providing these to family practice specialties, preferably in the rural areas. I currently sit on the UI Advisory Board and have had similar contact at the UW in the past. 

The Op-Ed was accurate on all accounts but there are a few other things to add to it. The first is that the WWAMI system educates a scholar for significantly less than any peer program. On top of that it is consistently rated as No. 1 in the nation for medical education. The cost difference is significant, about 60% less than WSU or the DO school in Idaho. When Governor Little was Lt. Governor there was a push for Idaho to form a medical school. Idaho hired a consultant that reported that there was no economical way to do it and advised to stay in WWAMI.

The proposed bill to change partners overlooks a very serious roadblock to education. The first two years are classroom, the final two years are clerkships. There is no capacity in Idaho, or now proposed Utah, to educate the students. Utah is going to get worse as BYU is now going to be competing for the limited training opportunities. It seems to be generally accepted that for a Medical School to be economical that it needs 160 person class size. This would be impossible in Idaho due to the clerkship limitation.

UI has been gagged from making any comments or participating in the discussion of the proposed Bill 176. This seems to mean that should the citizens of Idaho wish to try to pull ourselves from number 50 of the States in Doctors per capita that we need to be a loud voice. It also seems like our legislators need to hear that we are unwilling to pay a huge premium to accomplish this to meet some ideological goal.

JOHN HUCKABAY

Coeur d’Alene