Summer Programs --WWAMI Staff
	Since this is your last summer before entering the world of medical school is just beginning, we want to give you an early exposure to some of the programs offered through the UW for the summer following your first year. Consult Pulse, the student publication included monthly in JAMA, for opportunities independent of the UW.

1. Rural Underserved Opportunities Program (R/UOP)

This program is designed to give interested students an opportunity to work with a physician in a rural or urban underserved area during the summer between the first and second year. This four-week experience provides the student with an in-depth exposure to the practice of medicine in areas perennially in need of physicians. A stipend of around $1160 for one month is provided and housing is supplied at the local site. This program routinely receives enthusiastic reviews by both local docs and students who have participated.

2. Independent Investigative Inquiry (III)

The purpose of the III portion of the curriculum is to engage students in activities that will foster the skills of life-long learning essential for practicing physicians in the 21st century. Students will gain experience generating questions related to the practice of medicine and exploring the various methods available to resolve such questions. The student is strongly urged to select a project of particular interest to him/her and to investigate the subject independently, utilizing the advice of a sponsor and other resources in the WWAMI community. This is a unique opportunity for students to choose both the content and form of their learning and to pursue and interest that may not be included elsewhere in the curriculum.

There are four selectives by which the III requirement can be fulfilled. Each offers the student a different kind of learning experience, and each has its own expectations, procedures and deadlines. These are described briefly here; handouts describing each selective in greater detail are forthcoming.

Selective 1: Data Gathering /Hypothesis-driven Inquiry

This selective can take the form of a basic laboratory study, a survey, secondary analysis of an existing data set, a chart review, a qualitative study or a prospective clinical trial. The research can be initiated by the student or by the sponsoring faculty member, as long as the student has an independent role and makes an intellectual contribution to the project. If a student undertakes research as part of a funded program such as MSRTP or R/UOP-Research, the study can also be used to fulfill the III requirement.

Selective 2: Critical Review of the Literature

In most cases a critical review of the literature involves developing a hypothesis and using published material to derive an answer. Particular attention is paid to the methods of the studies reviewed in addition to the results. Alternatively, students can use published literature and other sources to analyze an issue in medicine or to perform a historical investigation.

Selective 3: Experience-driven Inquiry

An experience-driven investigation of an issue will be developed by the student while participating in either R/UOP, WRITE or CHAP programs. This selective is in its pilot phase, and so the number of students allowed to participate will be limited. Students will closely observe health care in a community setting, and then develop a project based on those observations. The project could take several forms, including a community needs assessment, a plan for a community health intervention, or evaluation of a service delivery project.

Selective 4: Special Simulation - ISIS

3. U-DOC Program

The U-DOC program is for underprivileged high school students who are interested in pursuing medicine. The students spend 6 weeks in WSU/UI dormitories and participate in many programs that focus on exposing them to various aspects of medicine. WWAMI medical students are interviewed in February to be resident advisors for the program. Room and board is provided, and a very generous stipend is given to RA's. Watch for details and applications.

4. MSRTP --Brenda Helbling, Administrative Assistant The Medical Student Research Training Program (or MSRTP) is a funding source for UWSOM medical student research.  It provides a $3,500 stipend to support research done under the supervision of a School of Medicine faculty or affiliate faculty member. Research can be undertaken at the University of Washington, out in the WWAMI region, or in some international sites. The MSRTP projects must consist of ten consecutive weeks (forty hours per week) of full-time effort on a defined research project. Students have the option of finding their own projects and faculty sponsors or contacting faculty who have provided specific project abstracts in response to our call for projects.

Applications for MSRTP are due at the end of January for projects that will occur in the subsequent Summer, Autumn, Winter, or Spring Quarters. Each application is reviewed by two members of the MSRTP Evaluation Committee. Students and sponsors are notified of whether they have been selected for an MSRTP stipend early in March. The MSRTP paper may be used to satisfy the Independent Investigative Inquiry (aka Triple "I") graduation requirement. This optional program is generally undertaken during the summer between the student's first and second year.

5. Prosection Dissections

--Dave Conley, Ph.D. and course instructor

A limited number of positions are available during the summer for WWAMI students who wish to complete detailed dissection in the trunk or head and neck regions. These are paid positions that require students to be available for at least three consecutive weeks during June or July (maximum time is 100 hours per student). Students are expected to complete the dissections they choose during this time and produce quality prosections that can be used for instruction of future WWAMI and undergraduate students in anatomy. Please contact Dr. Conley if interested for additional details.

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WWAMI Leadership Opportunities --Jasper James Chen E-03

Opportunities abound for you to become involved in serving your classmates as well as volunteering to lead organizations and activities. In what follows, you will read detailed descriptions of previous students' experiences in their specific leadership roles. The purpose of this introduction, however, is to share with you the incentives and joys of leading organizations and activities in WWAMI-land. Many of us come to medical school with a specific mission in mind: to become the best physician in the history of medicine, to graduate number one in order to get that top surgery residency, to be able to make loads of money someday, and, most importantly, to serve others in the humane and compassionate practice of medicine.

While I admire and certainly will admit to chasing these lofty goals, I found an earnest alternative (no less ambitious) at the same time: to serve my fellow classmates future colleagues and physicians so that the future of medicine can be improved for the benefit of all mankind. While this sounds crazy and overly zealous, I can assure you that taking the time and energy to serve your fellow classmates in however modest a capacity will help everyone, including yourself, in the long-run.

One of the best ways you can make a lasting contribution to your fellow classmates' lives is to serve as a student representative for one of many organizations. There are a plethora of organizations catering to your interests, and if there isn't, then by all means found it! For instance, in our year, many of us were interested in wilderness medicine and the business of medicine, and with student leadership we have begun to form interest groups focused on these topics.

Leadership is by no means limited to official duties. In my WWAMI-class, certain individuals were constantly making their classmates happy: in particular, individuals who plan, coordinate, and document (i.e., take pictures during) social and class activities; individuals who always remember to celebrate their classmates' birthdays by baking goodies and singing happy birthday to the happiness of all; individuals who show their spirit and enthusiasm for our class as a whole by sponsoring theme weeks and specific spirit days; those individuals who are especially apt at putting a smile on our faces and making us laugh; and lastly those individuals doing valuable work behind the scenes even without our realization. These aforementioned individuals are known by all as the true class leaders and are always remembered fondly by their classmates as those who make medical school an especially memorable experience.

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Medical Students Association (MSA) --Justin Rothmier E-98 and Jamie Shandro E-98

And in the beginning there were two, well, sort of. At the beginning of the year, Mike Laskowski asks for two students, one from WSU and one from UI to stand in as temporary MSA Senators. For our class, that was Jamie and I. Jamie is the senator for U of I and I am the senator for WSU. About a month later, there were official elections, and wouldn't you know it, we WON. However, as we are about to conclude the year, we still don't know for certain what we won. Let me tell you a little about the job of MSA Senator. It is a two year position that extends into second year. They act as liaisons between the administration and the class, in addition to helping out with the planning and organizing of certain class activities. The job that the senators perform depends widely on what the senators want to put into it as well as the personality of their class. This requires putting in a little extra time (most of which is spent at lunch with Mike). But luckily for us, our classmates wanted to help plan activities and get involved. So that meant a lot less work for us! (And more time for us to play, I mean study, right?)

As a class we have had activities like: T-shirt/sweatshirt sales (including designing our own E-98 WWAMI shirts), the unforgettable 80's party, a Christmas party, a golf scramble with professors and students, a depression workshop, two Visitation Days for you guys, a ski trip to McCall, numerous barbecues, and the first annual "Friends and Family Day". You name it-we did it. Mike and this WWAMI program are great because we as students are given incredible amounts of freedom to adjust our schedule (which this year required three room switches in Idaho), our activities, and even occasionally, yes, our tests! It is yours to create with and have fun with. If you are wondering about funding, Seattle sends about $500 to spend, but it usually doesn't come until after the semester break so you have to be creative with fund raising. We sold sweatshirts and T-shirts to our class and covered it that way.

Finally, it would be nice to take sole credit for our fun-filled year, but Jamie and I can't. To pull off a year like this, it definitely took the whole crazy class. We thank our classmates and our professors for letting us be a part of this fiasco and fun year. To the future WWAMI's, we hope that some of the our new traditions will live on and more will be begun.

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American Medical Association (AMA) --Ryan Ormond and Katie Watts E-02, Abby Parsons and Derek Jackson E-04

If you are interested in medical policy and want to get involved in the AMA, read on. There are two WWAMI delegates to the American Medical Association: one from the WSU class and one from the UI class. There are two main responsibilities of AMA delegates: first to handle enrollment to the AMA of your class members and ensure that they then start receiving their JAMA subscriptions. During the first year, one representative will attend the Interim Meeting in December, and the other will attend the main meeting at the AMA headquarters in June in Chicago.

At these meetings, you will act as a delegate, voting and working on the resolutions brought to the meeting. Both representatives will be able to attend both of them second year, as alternate delegates. Last year's conferences were held in Atlanta and Chicago and don't worry, travel expenses are covered. Your professors in WWAMI land are very helpful if any finals need to be switched to attend the December meeting. We can't make any promises about your second year professors as we have not dealt with that yet. The AMA offers many opportunities to meet people from other schools and other WWAMI sites as well as influence medical policy in the U.S. It is interesting to note that the current smoking ban on domestic airline flights began as a medical school student resolution at an AMA meeting. If you are interested, contact Abby Parsons E-04 or Derek Jackson E-04.

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--Gloria Van Eaton E-04

The family medicine interest group is dedicated to encouraging students to explore careers and current issues in family medicine. We are sponsored by both Idaho and Washington's association of family practice. The programs and agendas are very flexible and can cater to the current interests of the class.  Events sponsored by the FMIG have included: a practical skills night, a natural/alternative medicine speaker, a discussion on career planning, and wilderness emergency medicine.

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American Medical Women's Association (AMWA) --Anjali Kumar E-96

AMWA is a great organization for women in medicine. As a member you will receive JAMWA, a monthly publication which focuses on women's health and publications by women. AMWA members also are eligible for loans, scholarships, and conferences, through the national office. If you are interested in becoming the AMWA coordinator, write to me or any of the other AMWA officers in Seattle for membership information.

Try to coordinate at least one or two AMWA meetings (double up with FPC to get free food since they have money). This year's AMWA meetings were on women in surgery and rape and sexual abuse.

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Student Physicians for Social Responsibility (SPSR) --Radha Nandagopal E-99 and Diane Wing E-99

Want to get involved in the Palouse community? We started the WSU/UI SPSR for just that reasonto be able to do something worthwhile other than studying which cranial nerves send branches to the teeth. This year was spent on organizational work. We contacted counselors and teachers in the Moscow School District, and, with several other classmates, taught anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol education in several classes at Moscow High School. A group of us taught at the Moscow Alternative school as well.

We used slides (from Dr. Bob Wilson, who teaches Tissue Response to Injury in the Spring) and real organs from the anatomy lab (a place with which you will become way too familiar) to show all the horrible things that can go wrong with tobacco and alcohol abuse. The students loved it, and we had lots of fun teaching. For next year, the high school health teachers have expressed a strong interest in incorporating medical students' teaching into the curriculum. Also, it would be great to teach classes for younger age groups, too and to get the Pullman community into the loop (so, that's your job!).

If you're interested in running this activity next year, check out our binder in the WSU WWAMI officethere are some sample curricula as well as contact information for the curriculum director and health teachers at the high school. Remember, there's more to life than anatomythough at times it definitely doesn't seem like it. So take the opportunity to get involved and make a difference in your new home!

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Family Practice Club (FPC) --Chris Lee E-98

The FPC brings in local physicians and other medical professionals to talk about their work and the wisdom they've accumulated over the years. You and your classmates get an opportunity to ask lots of questions, and you might be surprised by some of the answers. The Idaho Academy of Family Physicians sponsors a generous grant to cover food and other expenses. We typically brought in lots of pizza or Subway sandwiches for lunch. This year we covered family physicians from a variety of different practice environments and with different focus areas.

In previous years, topics also included sports medicine, malpractice, emergency medicine, and women in medicine. If you are interested in arranging speakers and lunch arrangements for E-99, get in touch with Mike Laskowski. The UI WWAMI office keeps a detailed folder with information and wisdom passed down from previous groups.

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--Lindsay Barclay E-04

As a WWAMI class, Outreach was our way of giving back to the community and promoting healthy lifestyles. We were able to travel to several local schools and present on a range of topics. For several of the elementary/middle schools, we set up stations where students learned about various organ systems. Students were able to view and touch both healthy and diseased organs. We taught the students about the structure and function of the organs and stressed how each organ can become diseased based on our lifestyle choices. For instance, in the lung station, students saw the difference between the lungs of a non-smoker and the lungs of a smoker who had died from lung cancer. We were able to utilize this difference to emphasize the consequences of smoking and the dire effects it can have on our bodies. Another portion of Outreach included an HIV/STDs presentation to a local high school. We presented facts, statistics, etc. to the students and then allowed them to ask us questions about HIV, STDs, and sex in general. Overall, Outreach was a wonderful experience for both us and the students that we engaged with. It helped to remind us why we are going to medical school and want to become doctors, but also what it is like to be a kid again.

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--Cora Ludwig E-04 & Dayne Mickelson E-07

Prior to the 2004-2005 year, A Day in the Life was a book distributed to the incoming students of the WWAMI program, as stated in the introduction. It was very useful, full of contact information for finding an apartment and it gave me a very real picture of what my first year would be like. I approached orientation with a smile, knowing the glasses would be interesting, the professors would be fair, and life was not over now that I'd been chosen by lottery and banished to the Palouse. The book, however, was ugly and the only pictures it had were clip art of random objects and cartoons to students reading books. It gave the definite impression that while the program would be enjoyable, it was not first class.

But this isn't true! The program here is wonderful! Why were we misrepresenting it? So we set out to change things. At the beginning of the year, as with all the other extracurricular groups, our class voted for its representatives and officers. I was chosen as the WSU rep. for the WWAMI Book, and Richard Knight was chosen as the UI rep. We knew we wanted to make some big change around here, make some waves and really show off our stuff. In the end, a webpage seemed a cheap, easy way to advertise our program not only to incoming students by anyone interested in our program.

Looking at the page, you may wonder how long it's taken to build. Surely it was an arduous, painfull process, involving hours of training, right? I must have been a computer science major as an undergraduate, right? Not at all! The original page took about two hours to build (most of which was spent trying to decipher the jumbled file containing all the text from the old WWAMI Book) and about 10 minutes of training. The entire page was made in Word on my desktop PC. It's fast and easy to update. I've continued working on the page, adding text and pictures, fixing links, and so on, over the last few months. Really, the work is quite soothing and it's easy to spend an hour or so changing little things.

In 2007 Dayne, a computer engineering college graduate, was given the task to completely update and overhaul the original WWAMI webasite (still hosted here) as it had become outdated. Photos were missing, the html code was a messy mashup of microsoft word markup and ugly characters, and the website was quite out of date in terms of technology. All of the origional content was maintained - while links, email addresses, and data were updated. The site was completely skinned and re-styled to a newer, cleaner look. Though not everything was cleaned up - the site was updated with new E-07 information and pictures, as well as the new E-07 movie trailer - a sequal to the grand E-04 film. The html was cleaned up significantly - so the site is no longer maintained through the original word documents Cora created, but through the .html pages on the website. Any simple html editor will be sufficient in updating this site by someone with basic html knowledge. Also a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) html editor would for anyone else. See here for some simple free editors, and feel free to contact Dayne with any questions about updating the website.

If you're interested in continuing the proud legacy of our infant webpage, there are a few requirements you should know about:

• Be ready to give about an hour to the page each week.
• You'll need to work heavily with the slideshow/movie officers to gather pictures and film.
• Have a strong understanding of how to use an html editor(inserting pictures, manipulating text, but not much more is needed, honest).
• You should have your own computer where you can work on the hard copy of the page (you can ftp the webpages from the sever to your computer and back).
• Keep your mind open and think creatively. The page is limited only by your dwindling time and limitless imagination!

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End Of The Year Video --Arzhang Fallahi E-04 & Dayne Mickelson E-07

It is tempting to stereotype medical students and doctors.  It is easy to assume that because we take so many classes, study so hard and work such long hours that we are inevitably homogeneous.  Indeed the brochures and stories of medical school are infamous for their depiction of the mantra work hard play hard.  Yet, as I came to medical school I saw that these depictions were mere clichÈ and at best painted an incomplete picture of the true nature of medical school.  It was an experience that couldn't be defined by mere extremes of play and work.  What made it interesting was everything in between in addition to the extremes.  What is the best way to portray this complex story?  The end of the year slide show is designed to highlight the end of our first year.  Many past projects involved taking pictures and flashing them on screen with clever quotes.  As I came here I quickly realized that no picture could do justice to the complex set of emotions and feelings that make up this first year.  A film would do this experience more justice, although this is even incomplete.  Still a film would seem to give people something memorable to think about.

  Among the seriousness of the environment here we wanted to take a light hearted view at school through the lens of faculty and students.  In such a stressful world it is good to laugh at the ridiculousness of things and to laugh at ourselves.  It is when we lose our sense of humor that we ultimately fail.  As a film maker friend of mine once told me, a great comedy tells the truth.  Our hope is that this film will bring out some laughs but more importantly I hope it will bring out the fact that we are all in this together and that we are interesting and don't fit into predefined molds.  Behind the asinine situations and silliness I hope people will take a closer look at the message underneath it all.  Here's hoping for a paradigm shift for future WWAMIs.  We hope that his film will help everyone find WWAMIland.

Make sure to check out to trailers of past WWAMI videos at the bottom of the Intro page of this website found here.

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WWAMI Van Driving --Eric Walter E-98 & Mallorie Evenson E-04

One of the easier ways to make money while going to school is van driving. I walked to school twice a week, met my wide eyed classmates in the parking lot, hopped in and away we went. The most work involved was scraping the windshields every once in awhile and filling it up with gas once a month. I drove from Pullman, so I drove twice a week (those driving from Moscow drove three times a week). The occasional downfall was not being able to stay in Moscow after classes if I needed to talk to a Prof. or it there was a pick-up basketball game going on. However, with some creativity these things can be worked out when it's needed. For all this, I made between $100 to $120 dollars a month. Not bad considering I was going to be riding in the van even if I wasn't driving. If you plan on sleeping in through some of your 8:10 classes this isn't the job for you. You should also be comfortable driving in snow (assuming you actually get some next year, unlike this year, but take comfort in the fact that if you do get stuck, everybody else will have to get out and push but you). Finally, you have the added bonus of always getting a good seat and having control of the radio. During the winter, you're right next to the heater and when it's hot, your window rolls down!

Van driving has been a wonderful experience. By serving in this capacity, you really earn a great sense of respect from your peers. I think it inspires a feeling of awe in all of your fellow WWAMIs as they watch you maneuver this complicated piece of machinery all the way from Pullman to Moscow or Moscow to Pullman and then back again. As you climb into the driver's seat, so many thoughts go through your mind but you've got to focus: close the door, start the roaring engine, buckle your seatbelt, check your mirrors, then begin the treck. Lots of people go to medical school, but only a few people can drive the vans. Van driving is not only a privilege, it's an art.

The job usually gets grabbed up pretty quick, so if you want it you better hurry and call Brenda (at UI) or Fran (at WSU). Also if you want to make a little extra, take groups over to the anatomy lab on the weekends (this applies to the UI drivers). Good luck!

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T-Shirts and Sweatshirts --Brad Nelson E-97

Triticum Press in Pullman is definitely the place to go for decent service and prices on self-designed WWAMI t-shirts. They are very familiar with our group and have most of our past designs on file. Each year the class puts together their own unique t-shirt design. This year we had such great input that we actually chose two designs. Triticum also has on file the traditional t-shirt/sweatshirt design with E-98 and it looks like a team or college design. Get into this early because it is always fun to see who the first person to get beat up around town for wearing their University of Washington School of Medicine T-shirt every day and everywhere they go will be!

Additionally, you will have the option of purchasing t-shirt/sweatshirts through UWSOM. They will ask for orders sometime in November if not, get in contact ASAP with a Seattle senator that month to get an order placed with them, so that you can get your official UW SOM shirts by Christmas (for yourself or your family members)!

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