Public Medical Schools in Washington State.  Washington State has two public medical schools—the University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) and the Washington State University College of Medicine (WSUCOM).

UWSOM was founded in 1946.  UWSOM partners with four other western states, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, known as WWAMI, to allow those states' medical students to receive medical education as in-state students from the University of Washington (UW).  WWAMI is the only five-state medical school in the country.

WSUCOM, also known as the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, was created through legislation in 2015.  WSUCOM's first cohort of medical students began classes in 2017.

Health Equity Curriculum.  Each public medical school must develop curriculum for medical students on health equity by January 1, 2023.

The objective of the health equity curriculum must be to provide tools for eliminating structural racism in healthcare systems, and build cultural safety.

Each UWSOM and WSUCOM student must complete a course, or courses, on health equity prior to graduating.  Health equity course topics may include, but are not limited to:

• strategies for recognizing health care disparities and eliminating factors that influence them;
• intercultural communication skills training;
• historical examples of medical and public health racism;
• cultural safety training;
• structural competency training;
• methods of evaluating health care systems; and
• implicit bias training.

Goals for Representation.  Each public medical school, by January 1, 2022, must develop a goal focused on increasing the number of underrepresented students, guided by the state of Washington's need for physicians from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and each school's predominant equity goals.  In developing the goal, special consideration may be given to students attending the UWSOM through WWAMI.  The goal must be set for January 1, 2025.  Progress toward each goal must be reported annually on each of their public websites.