The University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital has the only civilian pediatric residency program in the entire five-state WWAMI region. The Alaska Track was created to immerse a group of residents within the rich diversity of experiences that practicing medicine in Alaska has to offer. The track helps residents develop skills in community building, culturally competent care, and maximization of medical resources for patients throughout a vast geographic region. Each year, four residents match into the Alaska track. In each of the three years of residency, residents in the Alaska Track will spend eight months of the year in Seattle and the other four months in Alaska. The time in Alaska is focused on ambulatory rotations in two different practice settings. The sites are paired so that each resident spends two months in a setting that serves Alaska Native communities (Bethel or ANMC) and two months in a setting that serves the general population. Rotations take place at one Anchorage site and one site outside of Anchorage, either Bethel or Fairbanks. Rotations include time at one of two Tribal medical facilities. The first is Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) in Anchorage, a 150-bed inpatient and outpatient facility. It has Alaska’s only Level 2 trauma center and is a referral center for all Native hospitals and clinics in the state. Residents primarily work at Southcentral Foundation’s Field Health Clinic caring for Alaska Native children from across Alaska with complex medical issues who come to Anchorage for pediatric and subspecialty services. The other is Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Delta Regional Hospital, a JCAHO-accredited facility. It is fully equipped for primary acute care medical services and has air transportation links to Anchorage hospitals. Residents spend most of their time in the outpatient clinics and see complex patients from around the region. Residents also spend time on the inpatient unit working with Health Aides to care for children remotely in their villages. Second and third year residents have the opportunity to travel to a village for a week of field clinic.
