Educating medical students for Alaska

Because Alaska does not have its own medical school, it has become part of WAMI (Washington, Alaska, Montana, Idaho), an educational agreement with the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSM). Each year, 10 Alaskans are accepted into the entering class of UWSM and spend their first year at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). UWSM third- and fourth-year medical students can obtain some of their clinical experience in Alaska. To meet the needs of Alaska, students are chosen based on academic and personal records, as well as the likelihood of their returning to Alaska for practice. To this end, over the last seven years 30% of accepted students have come from rural communities and 10% are Alaska Natives. The curriculum for the first year includes several sessions dedicated to Alaska health problems, cross-cultural issues, and Alaska's unique rural health care delivery system. Students do two preceptorships--one with a private primary care physician and one with a physician at the Alaska Native Medical Center. Additionally, students have the option to spend a week at a rural site to learn about the community's health care system. An Alaska track is being developed whereby an Alaskan UWSM student can do most of the third year in state via clerkships in family medicine, obstetrics/gynecology, psychiatry, internal medicine, and pediatrics. All UWSM students at the end of their first year can elect to participate for one month in the R/UOP (Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program), which includes several Alaska sites. The overall goals of these approaches are to educate UWSM students, especially Alaskans, about the state's health needs and health care system and to encourage UWSM graduates to practice in the state.