The University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM), founded in 1946, is a public medical school for a five state (WWAMI) region: Washington (Seattle and Spokane), Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho. Its faculty conducts basic and clinical research, cares for patients and trains new physicians, biomedical scientists and allied health professionals. Its regional education program, WWAMI, is a national model for community-based training of physicians for rural areas and for other populations lacking adequate medical services.