From WA to WWAMI

WASILLA — The premise of the early 90s TV show ‘Northern Exposure’ had the show’s New York City doctor protagonist essentially sentenced to mission work in rural Alaska to recompense the state for paying for his education.

While that premise is almost entirely ludicrous, the need for doctors in rural and remote places is anything but fictional.

It was a response to that need that first brought University of Washington medical school grad Barbara Doty to Alaska in the late 1970s, as one of the early participants in a residency exchange in a partnership between the UW and the state of Alaska.

“When Alaska was developing during the pre-oil buildup, they realized they needed some infrastructure and were asking how to provide adequate health care,” Doty said. “There was a college system present, but not as vibrant as now, so trying to put the whole medical school population (to work) in Alaska was not very logical.”

The program brought Doty to Fairbanks in the late 70s, when she was among just a handful of doctors in residency in the program.

After completing the program she left for Colorado for three years, but ultimately came back to Alaska, and she’s practiced in the Valley ever since.

“For one, it was an opportunity to serve a population that clearly had a need, and it provided a broad scope of practice,” Doty said. “You could do a lot of different things.”

Today, the partnership includes physicians from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho — better known as WWAMI, and their numbers are quickly approaching 300. It boasts the highest retention rate in the country, among all 460 similar programs, and, Doty said, 60 percent of Alaska physicians who participate wind up coming back to Alaska to practice medicine.

Dr. Doty is now the lead physician at Solstice Family Care in Wasilla, and has recently been named the supervisor of the UW’s clinical clerkship program throughout Alaska.

The number of Alaskans in the program now claims 20, including a star pupil from Juneau, whose own family owes much of its success to the WWAMI program as well.

“My father was in the first or second classes and my brother went through it four years ahead of me,” said Koko Urata, a Stanford grad whose father Robert has been operating a family practice office in Juneau for years. “I always knew medicine was what I wanted to do — at least after a couple of years of college I figured that out.”

At Stanford, Urata was part of national championship-winning synchronized swimming teams — a sport she first excelled in growing up in Juneau, oddly enough. At Stanford, she earned her masters degree in biology, studying the effects of brain cancer drugs on animals, and entered medical school at the University of Washington, thereby qualifying for the WWAMI program.

“I thought (synchronized swimming) was going to be my path, but I took science classes, and I helped coach when I was done competing, but started to let go of that career and tried to boost up my resumé a little more,” Urata said. “I wanted to deny (my passion for medicine) for a while, but my dad is very passionate about medicine and my brother didn’t always think he’d make it. I watched how he developed and grew with medicine. It took three years, but it’s exciting to start a new journey.”

Urata said her brother will soon be completing his residency in Tucson, Ariz. and after that will be taking on a job in Las Vegas. She, however, is focused on Alaska for the long-term, and the WWAMI program only helps solidify that commitment. Based at Solstice Family Care, Urata gets the opportunity to work at other facilities in the Valley, giving her a wide range of exposure to specialties before she finally decides on her path. A few weeks into her program, which runs through March, she’s been exposed to training in family medicine, pediatrics, psychology and obstetrics/gynecology.

“The more I explore, the more I appreciate Alaska,” Urata said. “I always thought people in Juneau, people in the Valley were wonderful people and I love the mountains… My parents are in Juneau, so that’s kind of a draw, but I could dry out for a little.”