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The Regional Medical Program was created in 1965 by Congressional action under Public Law 89-239. This law provided for grants to help establish "regional cooperative arrangements among medical schools, research institutions, and hospitals for research and training (including continuing education) and for related demonstrations of patient care in the fields of heart disease, cancer, stroke and related diseases." By means of these "cooperative arrangements," the latest advances in the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases were made available to all patients in need of them, while not interfering with the autonomy of health and medical personnel or institutions. The original emphasis of the programs was placed upon the three major killers: heart disease, cancer and stroke, which were responsible for about 70% of the deaths in the United States.

The Intermountain Regional Medical Program (IRMP) initial pilot projects were authorized in late 1966, and by early 1967 funds were awarded to IRMP, making it one of the first four RMP's in operation. These original projects focused on continuing education and training for physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals in cardiac care, cancer, stroke and information exchange systems, coronary care units, respiratory therapy, and visiting consultants and teachers for rural communities.

The IRMP area included the state of Utah, parts of Nevada, Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado, which contained a population of over 1.8 million, over 40% of this amount being located along Utah's Wasatch Front. The IRMP region is a mountainous area containing large tracts of desert and semi-desert lands that tends to create isolated small towns that usually have very poor medical facilities. In the 1960s the ratio of physicians to population in these rural areas was only 1-1758, a figure considerably worse than the national average for rural areas.

The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City, the center of the IRMP area, served as the grantee institution, and kept the program's financial records, as well as being responsible for reporting and accounting for fiscal expenditures to Washington D.C. Because of the nature of the program, the University affiliation was primarily through the College of Medicine.

Despite various attempts by Washington D.C. to cutback RMP funding during the early 1970s, IRMP continued its ambitious program until receiving word from the national director that federal funding would end in early 1973.