The WAMI (Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho) Medical Extension Program is a unique program for decentralizing certain portions of the educational and training program of the University of Washington School of Medicine by allowing students to take their first year of medical school at selected universities in the four states; they then join their colleagues in Seattle for the remainder of the basic curriculum. At the conclusion of the first two years, the students enter the elective phase of their education which is predominantly clinical in nature. During this elective period the WAMI plan allows undergraduate medical students to receive a portion of their training at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a portion of their clinical education from physicians in the communities where the physicians live and practice, called Community Clinical Units.

A most important part of the University of Idaho-Washington State University medical education program is the preceptorship. In this program, beginning medical students spend 4 to 8 hours a week with local physicians, thus becoming acquainted with medical practice and procedures from the very beginning of their medical studies. As indicated by student evaluations, this is one of the most interesting and valuable parts of their first year of medical education.

Among the benefits of the program are providing greater opportunities for area residents to enter medical school by increasing the number of residents who are admitted to the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSM), increasing the number of primary care physicians trained at UWSM, redressing the maldistribution of physicians in the WAMI territory by attracting more physicians to areas of need, and bringing resources of the Medical Center in Seattle to communities in the WAMI states to be used for, among other things, the continuing education of physicians.

The University of Idaho and Washington State University program began in 1972 under the direction of Dr. Guy R. Anderson and Dr. Ronald J. Adkins as a cooperative effort. Ten medical students were enrolled at WSU and nine at the U of I for one semester. Students and faculty commuted the eight miles between campuses, classes being held on the Pullman campus in the morning and on the Moscow campus in the afternoon. The curriculum was tailored specifically to parallel that at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Operating costs were supported by subcontracts let to each school by the University of Washington under a major contract with the Bureau of Health Resources Development. Essential equipment items were provided through a grant from the Commonwealth Fund to the University of Washington.

Since 1972 the cooperative effort has continued to be successful, and special WAMI courses have been developed to cover the entire first year of medical education.