Stronger Together, So Are the Communities We Serve

from Partners in Medical Education - Report to the Community 2023 - Wenatchee World

Student-Led Research Projects Target Healthcare Challenges

Seven years after the UW School of Medicine – Gonzaga University Health Partnership was formed with a vision to transform the health, well-being, and prosperity of the region, it is living its mission every day — to promote greater health through education, research, and innovation, while preparing our region’s next generation of healthcare providers. The combined strengths of each University, and the synergy generated through a nexus of students, faculty, healthcare and health sciences partners, creates a greater impact than each partner could accomplish alone.

UWSOM’s 50+-years of delivering top-ranked, world-class medical education, combined with GU’s legacy as an exemplary learning community educating students for lives of leadership and service, attracts, grows, and keeps the next generation of healthcare professionals serving patients throughout eastern Washington.

The new Health Partnership building is home to 120 UW medical students and used by more than 500 GU undergrads in nursing and health sciences. Thirty-plus UW MEDEX Northwest physician assistant students attend classes in the adjacent SIERR building, forming a growing cluster of academic and research institutions in the Health Peninsula. Students from a variety of health science disciplines create synergy for interdisciplinary education, mirroring the working environment in healthcare.

“Integrating the Human Physiology department into this Partnership allows us to contribute to the rapidly evolving fields of health care, science and technology more than ever before. I am so grateful to be among the first students to learn here.”

My Medical Education: Excellent

UW-GU Health Partnership’s Impact:

“I truly believe that especially for medical students who want to go into primary care or rural care there is no better program than UWSOM in which to train.

Through our partnership, a strong foundation for scholarly research has been established. Second-year medical school students address issues facing rural health through hands-on research projects and GU undergrads work with GU and UWSOM faculty through the McKinstry Fellows Research Program to explore issues and barriers to health.

To help future physicians more easily step into leadership roles, UWSOM and GU’s School of Leadership Studies have partnered to conduct a pathway that pairs leadership development with medical education, offering students leadership training, mentoring and practical applications.

Faculty and students in the Health Partnership are forming groups that facilitate targeted learning and social connections, such as a Pre-Med Forum, and Running Club.

The UW School of Dentistry’s Regional Initiatives in Dental Education (RIDE), which trains dentists to meet the needs of rural and underserved populations in the state and

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The opportunities we had to learn and experience medicine in diverse locations and settings across the WWAMI region allowed for amazing breadth and depth of education, and often with more hands-on learning directly from attending physicians than what would be available in most other programs. It is so rewarding to be able to give back and precept the UWSOM third-year students who come to Wenatchee for their Internal Medicine clerkship. These students are bright, engaged, caring and hardworking – it is a joy to see them develop their clinical skills and to help them on their path to becoming our future doctors and colleagues.”

“The UW-GU Health Partnership provides three key areas of tangible benefit to the community: Training the next generation of providers with a unique regional perspective, thus improving access to care, providing research and encouraging innovation that will improve health outcomes and have a positive economic impact, and enhancing the appeal of the area as a life and health sciences destination.”

Francisco R. Velázquez, M.D., S.M., F.C.A.P. Health Officer | Administration Spokane Regional Health District

Meet the Doctor Next Door

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Meet Molly Gilbert, MD

Employer/roles: Director Graduate Medical Education, Providence SHMC, Spokane

• Spokane Teaching Health Clinic residency training programs

Associate Professor Clinical Medicine, University Of Washington School of Medicine

NCAA Team Lead Physician Gonzaga University Athletics

Looking to thoughtfully grow graduate medical education with collaboration from our community health system and undergraduate medical education partners

My Medical Education: Outstanding

UW-GU Health Partnership’s Impact: “The opportunity to be involved in undergraduate medical education in Spokane has been tremendous. The students are so wonderful and to get to share all that Spokane has to offer is very rewarding.

As immediate past Program Director for Family Medicine Residency Spokane, it has been exciting to see medical students from the partnership become resident physicians and stay in our community. This will have a lasting impact on the health of our community members and communities overall - what a wonderful gift!”

Meet Brianna Higashihara

Employer/roles:

Full time student at UW’s MEDEX Physician Assistant program

Volunteer ambulance emergency medical technician in Deer Park, Wash.

My Medical Education: Diverse

UW-GU Health Partnership’s Impact: “After graduating from the human physiology program at GU in 2019, I put down roots in Spokane. The UW-GU Health Partnership allowed me to attend my top choice physician assistant program while still staying in Spokane.”

Meet Kelly Witte

Employer/roles:

• Physician Assistant in Family Medicine at NewHealth Colville Community Health Center

My Medical Education: Thorough

UW-GU Health Partnership’s Impact: “It was nice to have a space designated for MEDEX, more interaction with the medical students and see the positive effect on all students as a result of a more study friendly atmosphere.”