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University of Washington School of Medicine
Introduction
The University of Washington School of Medicine (UWSOM) is a public medical school located in Seattle, Washington. It is a graduate school affiliated with the University of Washington, and is the only medical school in the states of Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, and Idaho. Although serving as the primary medical school for a conglomeration of five states, UWSOM is well-equipped with teaching facilities in more than 100 towns and cities across the five-state region.
The school was founded in 1946 as the 76th medical school in the country, and is primarily committed to training doctors for rural populations, although biomedical research, experimental therapy, and academic medicine all play important roles. The UWSOM has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the nation’s top primary-care medical school for fifteen consecutive years. [1] In the 2007 edition of graduate school rankings, UWSOM also tied with Stanford University School of Medicine at seventh among research schools. [2]
The UW School of Medicine also ranks as one of the top medical schools in receipt of federal researching funding, having been awarded US$573 million in grants by the National Institutes of Health in fiscal year 2006. Only Harvard Medical School is awarded more federal funding. [3]