In 1877, the medical education program at Willamette University in Salem, the first formal medical education program in Oregon, relocated to Portland. In 1867, members of the medical department at Willamette University in Salem established the first formal medical education program in Oregon. In 1877, the program relocated to Portland, and in 1887, the University of Oregon established a medical school in northwest Portland, the only medical school in the Pacific Northwest. In 1917, Willamette University and the University of Oregon merged their medical education programs to form the University of Oregon Medical School.