THE JABS M LENS ISSUE 01
THE JOHN A. BURNS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I MĀNOA
“It’s about you!” JABSOM recently held an open house (something we plan to do again) to share the story of what we do. We chose as the central theme, “It’s About You.” Our school exists to improve your family’s health with better trained Hawai’i physicians. We create job opportunities in medicine for your children, and deliver clinical care informed by research that pays unique attention to health problems in our multi-ethnic, multicultural community. We hope these images from the year past illustrate how we did, some of our successes in 2016. Jerris R. Hedges, MD, MS, MMM Professor and Dean Barry & Virginia Weinman Endowed Chair
OUR MISSION
Growing more local doctors
Early admission
MDs in the Class of 2016 Match with ease
Our M.D. degree program grew to 70 members per class, capping a gradual yearly increase and achieved through dedicated work by our existing faculty. Nearly 90% of all incoming students are residents of Hawai‘i, demonstrating a continued emphasis on supporting the educational aspirations and enhancing retention of island graduates.
Aspiring medical students can now obtain early (conditional) admission to JABSOM through the UH Mānoa Early Acceptance Program.
All the members of the MD Class of 2016 matched into a residency program, including some of the best training programs in the country. Nearly 2/3 matched into a primary care (medicine, pediatrics or family practice) or initial patient contact specialty (obstetrics/gynecology or emergency medicine).
CREATING NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Graduates of the ‘Imi Class of 2016 are the first students to receive admission letters to the medical school’s next incoming MD class.
‘Imi students learning clinical skills.
Our enormously successful ‘Imi Ho‘ōla (“Those who seek to heal”) Post-Baccalaureate Program received a boost from former Governor Ben Cayetano, who dedicated $100,000 from a legal settlement to create the Benjamin J. Cayetano ‘Imi Ho‘ōla Endowed Scholarship. More than 240 physicians have gotten their start through the year-long ‘Imi program, which helps boost the skills of college graduates from underserved backgrounds so that they can succeed in medical school.
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ISSUE 01 THE JOHN A. BURNS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I MĀNOA
CARING FOR PATIENTS JABSOM MD residents treat patients in Hawai‘i under faculty supervision while honing their specialty skills. Nearly half the MD graduating class started residency training in Hawai’i, thus making an immediate impact on meeting the needs of patients in clinics and medical centers.
Expanding care for Central O‘ahu We expanded the Physician’s Center at Mililani, the main JABSOM Family Medicine training center, to include well-rounded, interdisciplinary care in partnership with our departments of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health, Native Hawaiian Health and the UH Hilo School of Pharmacy.
Pali Momi welcomes Family Medicine Residency Program Hawai‘i Pacific Health’s Pali Momi Medical Center became the hospital partner for the Family Medicine Residency Program in July 2016. Said Dr. Brooke Yorita, (JABSOM MD 2015), “I’m originally from ‘Aiea - so just a few minutes away and whenever one of my family members gets sick this is the hospital we usually go to, so I am very happy, to me it means a lot to be here.” (Dr. Yorita is pictured at right.)
PIPELINE PROGRAMS
Huge turnout at Teen Teen Health Camps, including in Hilo.
Teen and Keiki Health Camps
MD students and Kalihi keiki don “brain caps” they created to learn about the cerebrum.
Several hundred elementary, middle and high school students statewide took part in Teen and Keiki Health Camps led by our JABSOM Hawai’i Area Health Education Center and MD students. These hands-on learning experiences interest students in health careers or improve their understanding of health and wellness. A special focus is on encouraging learners from economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.
Free Pre-Health Career Corps launched AHEC also established the Pre-Health Career Corps, a free yearround program for high school and college students who are interested in pursuing careers in health. Students can join on-line!
ISSUE 01 THE JOHN A. BURNS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I MĀNOA
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LEADERSHIP Dr. Patricia Blanchette
Dr. Buenconsejo-Lum Family Medicine’s Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum (JABSOM MD 1994; FM residency 1997) was promoted to the role of Designated Institutional Official (DIO) for Graduate Medical Education (GME), overseeing our 17 post-graduate training programs (Residency and Fellowships). GME trains more than 225 MDs in collaborations with our academic hospital partners in the community, and retains some 80% of those doctors in Hawai‘i’s workforce.
Dr. Patricia Blanchette, (JABSOM MD 1979), became Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, and is helping to spear-head our re-accreditation process for the medical school.
Buenconsejo-Lum with Deputy DIO Holly Olson, MD; former DIO Naleen Andrade, MD; and Dean Jerris Hedges, MD.
EXCELLENCE Recognized Successful re-accreditations were achieved in Graduate Medical Education, along with a first-time accreditation with commendation for the Continuing Medical Education (CME) program we oversee providing required learning opportunities for practicing Hawai‘i physicians.
Leading in local medicine The ranks of Honolulu’s “Top Docs” are filled with JABSOM alumni and faculty. Some of the 350 JABSOM-affiliated physicians recognized by Honolulu Magazine pose with a few of our future doctors (current MD students).
REMEMBERING TO SAY MAHALO Over 500 community members attended the Anatomy department’s most recent memorial service for donors to the Willed Body Program.
View from a canoe carrying MD students who gratefully scatter the ashes of body donors at sea following the memorial service.
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ISSUE 01 THE JOHN A. BURNS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I MĀNOA
COMMUNIT Y COMMITMENT
Men’s March State Capitol gathering
Leading by example Dean Hedges and other University of Hawai‘i leaders took part in the Honolulu Men’s March Against Domestic Violence, with Dr. Hedges serving as co-chair for the third time. This year our future doctors collaborated with the JABSOM Communications office to produce a powerful first-hand video about family violence. Dean Hedges incorporates family violence into his lectures at the medical school, and has openly shared his experience growing up admist family violence.
Dean with MD students at the Men’s March
MD students even applied their culinary skills to bake the cake
MD students who work at the homeless clinics dance at the fundraiser
Homeless outreach turns 10 Students in the H.O.M.E. (Homeless Outreach and Medical Education) Project provide medical care, supervised by MD faculty, to homeless adults and children residing in several O‘ahu homeless shelters. H.O.M.E. just celebrated 10 years of service in a fundraising event where those MD student caregivers danced hula and even made the cake that honored H.O.M.E. and its founder, Office of Medical Education Director Dr. Jill Omori (JABSOM MD 1995).
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RESEARCH
Childhood health The number of top-tier R01 grants has increased significantly in JABSOM’s last decade. Recent additions include the seven-year ECHO Children Clinical Trials expansion grant led by Dr. Bruce Shiramizu (Pediatrics and Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology). ECHO will assess environmental influences on the health of children and adolescents and establish new clinical trials for children in Hawai‘i.
Child and adolescent brain Assisted reproduction development Breakthrough research in assisted Linda Chang, MD, (Internal Medicine) made headlines with research concluding that a gene connected to Alzheimer’s may show effects on the brain starting in childhood. More than 1,100 children in the U.S. between 3 and 20 years old had genetic tests, brain scans and were quizzed on their thinking and memory skills. Hawai‘i children were the largest group tested.
reproduction by Monika Ward, PhD (Anatomy) and her team in the JABSOM Institute for Biogenesis Research demonstrated assisted reproduction of mice is possible without a Y chromosome gene. Ward published her research in the journal Science, and presented three male mice lacking any Y chromosome genes, produced using Round Spermatid Injection.
HIV and AIDS
World AIDS Day
Heart failure
Lishomwa Ndhlovu, MD, PhD (Tropical Medicine and Hawai‘i Center for AIDS) will test a proposed HIV cure using a “Shock and Kill Strategy” and supported by new toptier NIH funding.
At a World AIDS Day conference on campus, nationally recognized HIV expert Dr. Douglas Nixon (George Washington University) called the JABSOM initiative to bring new Hawai‘i HIV cases to zero “bold and cutting-edge.” Photo above right: Hawai‘i Center for AIDS Director Cecilia
Alexander Stokes, PhD (Cell and Molecular Biology), patented a novel therapy for heart failure using compounds from marijuana. A Nevada pharmaceutical development company purchased the technology.
Zika-related birth defects
Zika, sexual transmission
Heat-stable Ebola vaccine
Brain inflammation
Vivek Nerurkar, PhD (Tropical Medicine) and colleagues discovered that as early as 2009 in Hawai’i, babies were being born with devastating microcephaly from mothers infected by the Zika virus.
Saguna Verma, PhD (Tropical Medicine) obtained a Zika Response Grant to study the sexual transmission of the virus.
Axel Lehrer, PhD (Tropical Medicine) successfully demonstrated that his team’s proposed Ebola vaccine is heat-resistant, a plus in delivering the vaccine to rural arid Africa.
Shikuma, MD is interviewed about the Center by local media.
Mukesh Kumar, PhD, DVM, MS (Tropical Medicine) received a major grant to support his work to discover an effective treatment for flavivirus infections, the leading cause of epidemic encephalitis (brain inflammation) worldwide.
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ISSUE 01 THE JOHN A. BURNS SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I MĀNOA
NEW ENDOWMENTS
Surgery alumni celebrate with a band playing Dr. Whelan’s favorite tune
Thomas Whelan, Jr. MD
Surgery alumni engergized by tribute to surgery education icon
Philip I. McNamee, MD Award in OB/GYN & Women’s Health
Surgery alumni had reason to celebrate in 2016 as an anonymous donor pledged $1 million to help fund an Endowed Chair in Surgery in honor of U.S. Gen. (Ret.) Thomas Whelan, Jr. MD. Dr. Whelan chaired the JABSOM surgery program for nearly 16 years. Alumni filled the Sheraton ballroom to salute Whelan’s memory. JABSOM communications created a 10-minute video documentary about the legendary General, and the Whelan Society was founded to continue efforts toward establishing the chair.
Ivica Zalud, MD, Carol and Dr. Philip McNamee and Dean Jerris Hedges, MD celebrated the establishment of the Philip I. McNamee, MD Awards in OB/GYN for JABSOM medical students and residents. Dr. McNamee practiced OB/GYN for more than four decades in Hawa‘i, and – with his partners – introduced in vitro fertilization services here.
A shaka from graduates of the Fall, 2016 Mini-Medical School on Healthy Aging
Ricardo and Dr. Rosita Leong (seated) celebrated the new endowment with Dr. Virginia Hinshaw and Dean Jerris Hedges.
New graduates, new name for Mini Medical School Dr. Rosita G. Leong, President & CEO, Bunker Hill Developments, Inc. and a University of Hawai‘i Foundation Trustee, is ensuring that the now renamed Rosita G. Leong Mini-Medical School on Healthy Aging at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) has funding in perpetuity. The mini-medical school prepares people for the second half of their lives by delivering relevant scientific information on aging, similar to what JABSOM medical students learn, but tailored for public audiences.
Colin C. McCorriston, MD Endowed Professorship in OB/GYN & Women’s Health Punahou classmates Dr. Tom Kosasa (JABSOM OB/GYN Professor Emeritus) and Hawai’i attorney William “Bill” McCorriston celebrated the Colin C. McCorriston, MD Endowed Professorship in Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women’s Health. Dr. Kosasa established the professorship in honor of McCorriston’s father, who delivered more than 10,000 babies during his service at the Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children. The Hawai‘i attorney, his family and HMAA added to it.
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NEW SCHOLARSHIPS
First 50th Anniversary Scholars selected
Kama‘aina student scholarship
The first ten scholarships funded by the 2015 JABSOM 50th Anniversary Gala were awarded in 2016. Ten medical students received $25,000 awards. The group included seven incoming students and three returning students.
The Patrick T. Lai, M.D. and Carole C. Lai (pictured) Endowed Scholarship was established to assist kama‘aina students with financial need who intend to practice medicine in Hawai‘i. Medical students in all four classes are eligible.
The Yu-Chong & Dora Lin Endowed Scholarship JABSOM MD class of 1987 alumna Dr. Mimi Lin and her husband Dr. Eric Padua established a scholarship in honor of Dr. Lin’s parents. Dr. Lin’s father, Dr. Yu-Chong Lin, is Professor Emeritus of Physiology at JABSOM. The scholarship is meant for JABSOM medical students with financial need, preferably those who are from economically-disadvantaged backgrounds and who are the first in their family to attend medical school.
A final aloha for Will Henderson UH medical students honored Former President of The Queen’s Medical Center and philanthropist Will Henderson in late 2016, as they boarded a canoe in Kailua to lovingly place a pu‘olo carrying Henderson’s ashes into the sea. Henderson established a perpetual scholarship for all third-year students at JABSOM, the Will J. Henderson Aloha Fund.
Will Henderson with Dean Hedges strolling on campus
The Stanley M. Saiki, Jr., MD Memorial Scholarship Endowment More than 300 donors generously honored Dr. Saiki’s memory by making gifts to this fund. His widow, Dr. Cynthia Goto, a JABSOM MD Class of 1983 alumna, and other family members decided to add to these memorial gifts to create an endowed scholarship, thereby creating a lasting legacy in Dr. Saiki’s memory. Dr. Goto hopes that this scholarship will encourage and motivate future medical students to persevere and stay the course on their journey to becoming physicians.
Kerry T. Yasunobu Memorial Scholarship Dr. Kerry Yasunobu’s widow, Kikue, established this scholarship in her husband’s memory to benefit medical students who are Hawai‘i residents. UH emeritus professor Kerry T. Yasunobu (1925-2009) developed and led the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and helped to found the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).
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ALUMNI
Julie Inouye Our Development Office welcomed Julie Inouye as Associate Director of Development and Alumni Engagement in 2016. Among other duties, Julie took charge of the Internal Giving Campaign, in which faculty and staff raised $697,427 in support of 73 funds at the school.
A pirate and commando pose for a photo booth picture
Events manager Melia Young has cotton candy ready to share
Alumni Reconnect 2016 offers carnival fun In July 2016, Reconnect 2016 brought alumni from near — and quite far — to the JABSOM campus in Kaka’ako. The Class of 2006, for example, had members fly in from several states on the US Mainland and from Guam, in addition to those whose specialty training allowed them to stay home where we need them. The carnival theme allowed the keiki to enjoy facepainting, dress-up photos, freshly made popcorn and cotton candy.
Family Medicine Resident January Andaya, MD, (JABSOM MD 2016)
Reminding MD alumni of home, in Seattle
Statewide shortage of physicians now at 500
MD alumni get together in Seattle with JABSOM faculty
The Hawai‘i Physician Workforce Assessment by the JABSOM Hawai’i Area Health Education Center showed the physician shortage eased a bit with new licenses issued for 97 physicians. JABSOM workforce building efforts include nationwide recruitment, a medical school loan repayment program, electronic records training for local physicians and promoting heath professions among island youth.
When Dean Hedges travels on business, he makes time annually to meet with Alumni “On the Road.” In 2016 that included meeting up with 22 alumni in Seattle. For a few hours, Hawaiian music and the nostalgic fragrance of plumeria lei transported the MDs home to Hawai‘i.
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The JABSOM Lens is produced by the Office of Communications. Editor: Tina Shelton • sheltont@hawaii.edu • 808-692-0897 Chief Photographer: Amanda Shell • shella7@hawaii.edu