In the early 1970s, the United States faced a shortage of general practitioners, especially in rural communities.
This shortage impacted Washington State which, at the time, had no practicing primary care physicians in five of its counties. Noting that surrounding states and Alaska were faring even worse the UW took initiative and developed a comprehensive program to train and prepare physicians to care for patients across Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. This regional education program to bring primary care physicians to medically underserved communities was originally known as WAMI, an acronym for the states served by the UW School of Medicine; it became WWAMI in 1996 on the addition of Wyoming to the program.
Today, WWAMI is heralded as one of the most innovative community-based medical education and training programs in the country.