Doctors, Idahoans rise up to protect state's medical education program
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Idaho legislation that would end the state's participation in a regional medical education program is facing a groundswell of opposition.
WWAMI - which stands for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho - is a partnership overseen by the University of Washington School of Medicine to train physicians in the region.
The program, started in 1972, has the goal of increasing medical professionals in largely rural states like Idaho.
Dr. Mark Uranga is a pediatrician in Boise and a WWAMI grad. He spent time in McCall and Pocatello with the program, and noted that those cities don't have the infrastructure of a medical school.
"By getting people to that experience," said Uranga, "the goal is really for them to see the beauty in those relationships that people build both in a rural setting and in a setting where there's less historical presence of medical educators."
Idaho has a severe shortage of doctors, ranking last in states for its physician-to-population ratio.
More than 1,600 Idahoans, including people involved in the program, have signed a letter urging lawmakers not to end WWAMI.
Supporters of House Bill 176 ending the partnership, say the state has had issues with the University of Washington, in part because the school hasn't agreed to the state's request restricting spending abortion care.
Liz Woodruff is the executive director of the Idaho Academy of Family Physicians.
She said while there are opportunities to grow medical education, ending the program would be a major blow to the physician pipeline in the state.
Since 1972, Idaho has retained 73 percent of graduates of the program in the state or affiliated states. Woodruff said the surge in support for WWAMI in the past week is reaching the Capitol.
"We believe that community concern about legislation that would end WWAMI has created an opportunity for lawmakers to think more about medical education," said Woodruff, "and how we can grow it in Idaho in effective ways, and we believe that any future for medical education needs to include the WWAMI program."
Uranga, who is also an educator in the program, said replacing it and recreating it from the ground up would take decades.
"The reason that the WWAMI community is asking for a pause on this legislation," said Uranga, "is because basically it would scatter this preceptor group, this clinical education to the wind, and it wouldn't provide any framework for it to carry forward in any other new capacity."
