“We would feel a greater connection to the community if we were here for four years. Spokane offers students greater opportunities for patient interaction and greater access to faculty mentors than we would have at other sites. Building upon these relationships throughout our training would help integrate us into the community and encourage us to stay here long-term.”

- Colette Inaba, WWAMI Spokane student

The University of Washington School of Medicine is a nationally recognized medical school and has been ranked the #1 primary care medical school in the country for 16 consecutive years.  It is the only medical school serving five northwest states and its WWAMI program is a 40+ year collaboration between Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. In the state of Washington, medical students study at Washington State University or at the University of Washington.

Washington State University has been hosting some of the WWAMI students for their first year  of medical school training at Spokane’s Riverpoint Campus, where medicine is taught in an interprofessional environment alongside pharmacy, nursing, dentistry and other health professions.  After returning to UW for the second year of medical school, some students come back to eastern Washington for clerkships in their third and fourth years.

At the end of their training as doctors, approximately 5 -10% return to the region to practice. The biggest indicator of whether a physician will settle in an area is whether he/she attended medical school and completed a residency in that region. Students from Washington who cannot attend medical school in the state go to other parts of the country to attend medical school and are thus more likely to settle where they train.

Washington’s medical education system has not grown to keep up with our population. 80% of Washington college graduates who apply to the University of Washington School of Medicine are turned away. The WWAMI program can currently accommodate only 216 students a year. In 2010, UW received 4,459 applications from all five partner states. This means we are sending our talented young people to other states for education.

Read more about Washington’s Physician Shortage. We have the opportunity to keep our talent local and educate more family doctors.  Greater Spokane Incorporated, with partners in higher education and the business community, have been working to make a four-year medical school a reality in Spokane.  Read more about Why Spokane here.