Program Goals

Program Goals

Goal 1: Expand Access through a Regionally Responsive PA Workforce

Goal 2: Prepare Compassionate, Clinically Competent PA Graduates for entry-level practice.

Goal 3: Maintain clinical partnerships and experiential learning opportunities that prepare students to serve in primary care settings across underserved and rural locations.

Details demonstrating the program’s success in meeting these goals are found as follows:

Student Enrollment

A total of 1,332 candidates submitted applications for acceptance to MEDEX Northwest in 2024. Of these candidates, 160 were accepted into the program.

Student Diversity

MEDEX Northwest continues the tradition of educating minority students. Of the accepted students, 56.3% are from ethnically diverse backgrounds: 10% self-identified as Black or African American, 6.3% American Indian/Alaska Native, 33.8% Asian/Other Asian, and 6.2% Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.

Military Students

The percentage of students with military experience selected for the 2024 entering class is 11.3%.

The history of the PA profession and MEDEX Northwest began with military medics and corpsmen. To continue this tradition of providing PA education to military medical personnel, MEDEX is committed to creating opportunities, to participating in outreach activities with a focus on building a strong military applicant pool, and to providing PA education to current and former military members.

Regional Connection

MEDEX is a regional program committed to educating students from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI), and from the state of Hawaii. The percentage of students accepted in 2024 from the WWAMI region is 89%. This breakout includes: 56% Washington, 12.5% Alaska, 5% Montana, 7% Idaho, 2% Wyoming, and 17.5% Hawaii.

Gender Diversity

The gender breakdown of the total accepted class in 2024 is 60% female, 37.5% male, 1.3% trans male/trans man, and 1.3% genderqueer, gender non-conforming, or nonbinary gender.

Average Age

The age of the total accepted class ranges from 21 to 52 with the mean age of 29.

Reapplicant vs. New Applicant

First-time applicants accepted in the 2023-2024 application cycle accounted for 73.1% and the number of reapplicants accepted makes up 26.9% of the 2024 accepted class.

Graduate Practice Information

Over 74% of program graduates serve the WWAMI region in both primary care and specialty practice. MEDEX graduates working in primary care total 43% with others working in emergency medicine (14%), surgery (20%), medical specialties (8%), and other areas (13%).

Utilization and Building of Relationships with Community-Based Clinics

The centerpiece of the clinical phase of training is the four-month primary care preceptorship.  This is most often completed in a family practice setting, or students may work with general internal medicine physicians and PAs.  There are also six shorter one-month rotations, called clerkships, which are intended to expose future primary care clinicians to specialty practice.  The required clerkships are behavioral medicine, emergency medicine, surgery, inpatient and a rotation in a medically underserved setting.  An elective rotation rounds out the year.  Students are expected to obtain experiences in maternal health and pediatrics during the longer preceptorship.  Rotations are arranged throughout the five-state WWAMI service region, the state of Hawaii, and beyond. Ninety-four percent of MEDEX clinical rotations are community-based clinics. All students are expected to travel to participate in the community-based training opportunities. Students must return to the program four times during the year for orientation, additional instruction, evaluation, and graduation.

Campus Locations 

To increase access to PA education, MEDEX Northwest operates five campus locations, which includes the Hawaii campus in Kona which opened in 2020. This strategic expansion into Hawaii will serve students throughout a growing service region.

Clinical-phase training takes place throughout the five-state WWAMI region—Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho—and Hawaii. All campus locations offer a Master of Clinical Health Services degree program. Please see Degrees Offered for further explanation.

The Seattle campus, housed in the University of Washington School of Medicine, is the home base of MEDEX Northwest. Please explore the different campus options below.

• Seattle
• Spokane
• Anchorage
• Tacoma
• Kona

Didactic and Clinical Curriculum

MEDEX delivers a full, equivalent curriculum across all distant campuses. Please see the curriculum details here.