Vandal Giving Day 2024

Help Idaho WWAMI celebrate 52 years of educating Gem State medical students! In partnership with the nationally ranked University of Washington School of Medicine, we have proudly served as Idaho's medical school since 1972.

Scholarships Help Idaho Medical Students Become Idaho Physicians

Nationally, Idaho ranks 50/50 in physicians per capita, and yet has led the nation in population growth for the last five years - a problem that is compounded by an aging healthcare workforce. Simply put, Idaho desperately needs more healthcare professionals. And because rural community doctors earn about $60,000 less than the national average, Idaho-trained physicians may choose to practice in more urban areas of our state. 

Your gift to the Idaho WWAMI Scholarship Fund reduces student loan debt, helping keep Idaho-trained doctors in Idaho and making rural service more attainable.

ECHO Idaho Supports Continuing Medical Education 

Part of Idaho WWAMI since 2018, Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO) Idaho offers Idaho health professionals the opportunity to participate in a community where experts and peers share knowledge, experience and expertise using technology - not proximity - to connect. ECHO Idaho uses video conferencing over lunch breaks to bring physicians, nurses, counselors, pharmacists and others together in real-time collaborative sessions. 

ECHO Idaho has recently developed the K12 Education series that includes K12 Behavioral Health, K12 Substance Abuse and Prevention, K12 School Nurses and K12 Suicide Prevention. The K12 series is designed to provide increased training to school-based professionals and clinicians to improve the quality of life and well-being of students under their care.

Your gift to the ECHO Idaho fund helps safeguard ongoing series such as K12 Education, Opioid, Pain and Substance Use Disorders and Pediatric Autism. Funding also helps ECHO Idaho develop new offerings such as Hepatitis C and Geriatric Patient Care.

Enhance Student Experiences with North Idaho AHEC

Supported by Idaho WWAMI since 2017, the North Idaho Area Health Education Center (NI-AHEC) works to develop a pipeline of healthcare professionals equipped to meet the unique needs of Idaho’s rural and/or underserved communities. As one of three centers in Idaho, NI-AHEC partners with local organizations, clinics, hospitals and schools to develop and deliver a portfolio of learning opportunities for students in grades 9-12, health professions students and healthcare professionals. 

Your gift to North Idaho AHEC helps sustain programs such as "Doc for a Day" and "Hands-On Healthcare," health career exploration events for regional high school students and community-based experiential training for medical students through the Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program (R/UOP), an elective summer program in which medical students spend four weeks working alongside physician preceptors in rural and/or underserved communities to develop their understanding of primary care and community health systems. 

Idaho Office of Underserved and Rural Medical Research

The mission of the Idaho Office of Underserved and Rural Medical Research is to improve the health of Idaho’s underserved and rural communities through the purposeful integration of medical education, research and service to advance clinical practice and patient care in our state. With four post-doctoral fellows and two U of I Ph.D. research assistants on staff, this office is currently researching important topics in Idaho’s healthcare landscape such as examining the recruitment and retention of healthcare providers in rural Idaho, examining patient learning capacity/health literacy levels in rural Idaho and provider adherence to hepatitis C testing in opioid use disorder patients.

Your gift to the Idaho Office of Underserved and Rural Medical Research supports this research and ultimately helps determine important trends in Gem State healthcare.

Dean’s Excellence Fund

The Dean's Excellence Fund is an important safeguard that can be used to send medical students to professional conferences, bring in guest lecturers and educators, host specialized workshops and even assist students with short-term emergency expenses. A gift to the Dean's Excellence Fund provides the flexibility to meet immediate needs and take advantage of timely opportunities for students and faculty instructors.

Optum Idaho is proud to sponsor a $10,000 match for donations to the WWAMI "Dean’s Excellence Fund” to support Idaho’s future health care workforce capabilities and help University of Idaho WWAMI students overcome social or economic barriers to achieving their medical education goals. Optum is committed to transforming Idaho’s health care system one person, one family, one community at a time.