WWAMI (pr: WHAM-ee with a silent ‘h’) is the University of Washington School of Medicine’s innovative multi-state medical education program. WWAMI is an acronym for the states served by the UW School of Medicine’s M.D. and Graduate Medical Education (GME) programs: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho.  

The goal of the WWAMI program is to make public medical education accessible to residents throughout the five states, and to encourage graduates to choose careers in primary care and family medicine, and practice in non-metropolitan areas of the northwestern U.S., often lacking adequate numbers of primary care physicians and access to healthcare.

To advance excellence in medical education the UW School of Medicine partners not only with the five WWAMI states, but also with faculty, physicians, universities, medical societies and associations, Area Health Education Centers (AHECs), and hospitals and clinics within these states to help meet physician workforce needs in the region.

For its unique approach to supporting the rural physician workforce, WWAMI has received many recognitions and accolades over the 50+ years since its inception. A Lancet commentary called the WWAMI program “perhaps the best academic model” of a multifaceted approach to recruitment and retention of physicians in under-resourced communities. 

WWAMI has five primary goals:

1. Provide publicly supported medical education
2. Increase the number of primary care physicians, especially in under-resourced areas
3. Provide community-based medical education
4. Expand graduate medical education (residency training) and continuing medical education for physicians
5. Achieve these goals in a cost-effective way