Medical Education Building Opens at the University of Idaho

Six months after christening a new anatomy lab, the University of Idaho held a ribbon-cutting for the completed renovation of a former Business Technology Incubator building into a new Medical Education Building serving the WWAMI medical education and training program. Together, the two building projects, both designed by Flad under a fast schedule and within very tight budgets, bring together Idaho medical students for the first time into purpose-driven facilities that also provide a sense of community and support during their intense training.

With the opening of both new spaces, the university boasts a refreshed, modern identity for Idaho's WWAMI program. WWAMI, comprising the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho, seeks to provide access to publicly supported, community-based medical education for students in their first two years of medical school. Among the primary motivations is the urgent need for physicians to serve Idaho's rural population.

This first phase located the WWAMI program's anatomy training laboratory in the medical office building across from the Gritman Medical Center. The new Medical Education Building accommodates offices, an expanded student lounge, flexible and interactive learning spaces, small exam rooms, faculty offices, and administrative support space. The project included an addition of approximately 3,000 square feet to the existing 17,000-square-foot building, establishing the university's first dedicated medical education building at a major gateway to campus and anchoring a new health sciences precinct. Its location, on the east end of campus, offers convenient pedestrian connection to the Gritman Center, where students apply classroom learning to direct patient experiences.

With a core curriculum centered around anatomy and medical education, the focus broadens to include multidisciplinary learning and skills acquisition, leading up to the fulfillment of partnership agreements, rotations, and specialized learning within the Gritman Center.

University of Idaho Huckabay Medical Education Building University of Idaho Anatomy Training Facility at Gritman Medical Center

July 10, 2019