The future of medical education in Washington state is nearing a crossroads, and that figurative intersection is forming smack dab in the middle of Spokane’s University District.

University of Washington began offering a full four years of medical education in Spokane last fall with a class of 20 students, and Washington State University finished construction of its $79 million Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences Building, which houses medical education, late last year. 

Late last month, UW announced plans  to seek state funding to quadruple the number of medical student slots available in Spokane through the WWAMI program, which is short for Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Established 40-some years ago, the program provides the means through which each state can send medical students for training. If UW receives state funding for its proposed expansion, the number of WWAMI students here would jump to 80.

Quick growth in the number of WWAMI students is great news for the Spokane business community, as it requires more instructors who typically bring with them research projects—and research dollars—that come with the potential in some cases to become private-sector startups. 

Washington State University administrators have lauded the expansion of WWAMI in Spokane, but they aren’t convinced that a ramp-up of that model will be sufficient enough to meet the growing demand for doctors in the Northwest. WSU has commissioned a study to look at whether it should develop its own medical school, independent of UW, in Spokane.

This sounds like it has the potential to become a rivalry with an intensity that will make the Apple Cup look like grade-school flag football, though those involved hope it can be pursued without a great deal of acrimony. That said, tensions already are apparent.

WSU President Elson Floyd and a contingent from the Pullman and Spokane campuses visited the Journal’s editorial board earlier this month, and the case they make for more aggressive expansion of physician education is compelling. WWAMI started in 1971, and WSU Spokane Chancellor Lisa Brown, who served in the state Senate for 16 years before taking the position with the university, says the first expansion of medical school slots for Washington state students came in 2008, when a group from Spokane pushed to provide the full four years of training here. 

WSU also argues that states with populations similar to Washington have much more expansive medical education. Couple that with greater demand due to the Affordable Care Act and an aging physician workforce, and the writing is on the wall. Brown contends that because of the market factors, someone within the WWAMI system is bound to form its own medical school in the next 10 to 20 years. 

“I think this is inevitable for the five-state area, and it becomes a matter of what and where and when and who,” she says. “And it probably will happen sooner than later.”

The “where” they have in mind is the University District, where the schools of pharmacy and nursing are located, within eyeshot of the medical district on the lower South Hill. 

WSU’s study is going to be finished in June, and the private sector needs to be prepared to pursue this as aggressively as it went after the first 20 slots. The potential benefits are much greater.