LIHU‘E — Using a $10 million commitment gift from Dr. Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa’s John A. Burns School of Medicine will fund a new Kaua‘i Medical Training Track.
The six-year gift will fund tuition and fees to train six JABSOM medical students who have ties to Kaua‘i or another neighboring island and are interested in rural health care, beginning in July.
The Kaua‘i program will enhance access to health care on the island and add physicians by offering rural residencies under trained faculty.
“Expanding the medical community will help improve access to health-care services for local residents — which is crucial to building a healthier community on Kaua‘i,” the couple said in a statement. “We’re honored to support the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawai‘i as they strive to address the physician shortage by creating a more-robust pipeline of doctors.”
JABSOM will partner with Wilcox Health and Hawai‘i Pacific Health Medical Group.
“No one brings the level of intimate knowledge and skilled attention to the health of the community as well as someone who is from the community, trained in the community and chooses to serve that community,” state Deparment of Health Kaua‘i District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman said.
“This program is a much-needed opportunity to support the medical training of Kaua‘i’s future physicians while ensuring that their training prepares them to live and practice here,” she said.
Often, to get the training they need, students interested in the medical field have to move off-island for opportunities, and many don’t come back.
“Like all physicians who grew up on Kaua‘i, I left the island for school and training, but Kaua‘i has always been home to me,” Kaua‘i-raised Dr. Travis Hong, a pediatric physician at Kapi‘olani Medical Center on O‘ahu, said.
Hong will oversee the program as director of rural training, mentoring medical students.
“Having an opportunity to significantly improve health care on Kaua‘i has been a dream of mine since returning to Hawai‘i, and I am so grateful and honored to be a part of this targeted and very timely program,” said Hong.
Kaua‘i Medical Director for the Hawai‘i Pacific Health Medical Group Dr. Geri Young said the program will hopefully encourage students to pursue work in rural areas.
“Over the years, we have seen how so many of the JABSOM alumni who practice on our neighbor islands serve in our communities for their entire career,” said Young. “The rewards of practicing medicine and supporting good health and wellness for our friends and neighbors are great. This program will give our future physicians a meaningful opportunity to experience this.”
JABSOM hopes that the program will add 21 residents to Kaua‘i annually.
“By providing such a longitudinal opportunity for budding physicians to experience health care and life on Kaua‘i, this program has wonderful potential to address the physician shortage on the neighbor islands and inspire more of our own healers to return to serve our communities after completing their training,” Chief Medical Director for Ho‘ola Lahui Hawai‘i Dr. Kapono Chong-Hanssen said.
“We believe the collaborative relationships built between the various health-care organizations on Kaua‘i will provide a valuable experience for these medical students and help them appreciate the famous saying ‘maika‘i Kaua‘i, hemolele I ka malie (Beautiful Kaua‘i, peaceful in the calm).’”
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Sabrina Bodon, editor, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
We also need to support our Advanced Practice Registered Nurse’s- I really appreciate our APRN services here on Kauai… I hope this program can also support APRN’s for Kauai.
This is such wonderful news! As a medical student from Maui I would have loved the opportunity to have trained on a rural island much like my home. Very excited that this will hopefully help us recruit more physicians to the neighbor islands where they are needed!
I truly appreciate Mark Z. donations to Kaua’i and the people. Many say that it is a tax write off and the millions are just a drop in the bucket for him and his wife but still yet, it is generous and appreciated by many.