The Inland Northwest region is home to over one million people, spanning four states including Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, Western Montana, and Northeastern Oregon. Supporting our remarkable region is a robust network of rural and urban hospitals (including two of the top three in the state of Washington), excellent higher education assets including two research universities and numerous private colleges, a robust community college system, a multi-program federal lab and world class digital infrastructure allowing for broadband communication. But for all of the impressive attributes our region has, the Inland Northwest continues to lag behind the country in growing regional wealth, attracting knowledge based business, and creating high wage jobs.

However, over the last decade or so, Eastern Washington has developed a strong network of both healthcare and academic resources. Many of these existing assets would provide support as well as benefit from the creation of a biomedical research institute. The ISM is designed with the intent of leveraging the existing regional resources and strengths, and connecting them in a fashion that serves as a catalyst for greater interaction between the existing assets as well as to grow the overall scientific and healthcare footprint. Some of these assets include:

• An existing base of academic biomedical and life sciences research at Washington State University (WSU), Gonzaga University, the University of Idaho, the Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL), Eastern Washington University, and others.
• A strong, health care workforce, with 21.2% of the working population directly or indirectly employed in health care. Sacred Heart Medical Center and Empire Health System are among the top ten employers in Spokane.
• A visionary community of health care and university leadership with a strong commitment to new research, technology, and economic growth. This is validated through several awards Spokane has won and evidenced through its small, but growing, cluster of medical technology, instrumentation, device, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology companies.
• A high prevalence of health care and academic partnership opportunities. Nearly 1 in 5 of the working population in Spokane County is directly employed in health care (12%) or state or local education (9%).
• A diverse group of higher education institutions with almost 70,000 students at community colleges, regional and research universities, including two nationally recognized private schools.
• Dynamic health-related information technology, including a unique electronic medical records system that connects ~40 hospitals in the region.

In Eastern Washington, connecting our health care and academic assets with translational health research is a bold idea focused on driving local economic development while significantly improving healthcare. Our regional assets are place bound and new investments in biomedical research can and should be focused on leveraging these assets in ways that will enable the translation, application and potential commercialization of new discoveries to occur in a seamless process. Success in doing so will confer a competitive advantage for our regions hospitals, high wage job creation for our communities and wealth creation that will fuel continuous innovation.