History | Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics

• 1967 Office of Research in Medical Education (ORME) Established under the auspices of Academic Affairs within the School of Medicine

• Dr. Charles W. Dohner appointed ORME Director

• 1972 Founding of the WAMI Regional Medical Education Program [by legislative mandates in Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho] ORME expands to serve the WAMI Region

• 1980 ORME attains academic status and becomes the Division of Research in Medical Education (DRME)

• 1982 Affiliation with King Abdulazziz University Faculty of Medicine, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

• 1984 International Medical Education Office is established within the DRME with support from the Pew Foundation which established the Health Sciences China Exchange Program

• 1987 Dr. Dohner Elected Founding President of the Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education

• 1989 DRME attains departmental status and becomes the Department of Medical Education. Dr. Dohner appointed Department Chairman

• 1992 DME 25th Anniversary Celebration

• 1992 Founding of the NW Center for Clinical Assessment within DME with support from the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation

• 1994 Founding of the Center for Medical Education Research within DME with support from HRSA

• 1994 MEDEX Northwest joins the Department of Medical Education bringing physicians assistant education into the School of Medicine.

• 1995 DME Teaching Scholars Program Established

• 1996 Dr. David M. Irby appointed Acting Department Chairman

• 1997 WAMI Evolves into WWAMI: Program Expands to include Wyoming in the Regional Medical Education Program [by legislative mandates in Washington and Wyoming]. DME assumes expanded developmental and evaluative roles in WWAMI Programs

• 1997 Dr. Fredric M. Wolf Appointed Department Chairman

• 1997 Formal establishment of Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI)

• 1999 UW funding provided for Biomedical and Health Informatics, Graduate Program

• 2001 Formal approval of the Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI) MS Degree Program

• 2002 First MS Graduate in BHI

• 2002 National Library of Medicine Training Grant in Biomedical and Health Informatics Funded
  
  
• 2002 DME changes its name to Department of Medical Education and Biomedical Informatics (MEBI)
  
  
• 2003 Formal approval of the BHI PhD program
  
  
• 2005 The first PhD Graduate of the BHI program
  
  
• 2006 BHI joined the International Partnership in Health Informatics Education (IPHIE), a consortium of US and European biomedical and health informatics graduate programs.