UH students could study medicine on Maui
University asking for $1.4 million to begin
Amandalin Rock of Maui, a University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine student, cares for a simulated infant patient. The medical school is trying to establish a program on Maui. VINA CRISTOBAL photo
Madison Williams of Maui and a University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine student is shown during an endotracheal intubation workshop. The school and state legislators hope that students, such as Williams, will practice on Maui and may encourage future students by establishing a medical school program on Maui. DEBORAH MANOG DIMAYA photo
Amandalin Rock of Maui, a University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine student, cares for a simulated infant patient. The medical school is trying to establish a program on Maui. VINA CRISTOBAL photo
Madison Williams of Maui and a University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine student is shown during an endotracheal intubation workshop. The school and state legislators hope that students, such as Williams, will practice on Maui and may encourage future students by establishing a medical school program on Maui. DEBORAH MANOG DIMAYA photo
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A proposal to bring a four-year University of Hawaii medical school program to Maui in hopes of attracting more doctors to the Valley Isle has the support of several Maui County legislators.
Last week, during budget brief-ings prior to the opening of the state Legislature today, UH officials presented a request for a $1.4 million 2020-21 supplemental budget appropriation for the hiring of eight full-time faculty and staff to create a fully developed medical school program, which would admit up to six students for all four years of training.
The school will give preference to qualified applicants from Maui, said John A. Burns School of Medicine Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum.
Currently, there are 14 Maui County students in the UH medical school.
If funding is secured, the initial phase of student recruitment could begin next academic year with potentially the first Maui class in July 2021, said Buenconsejo-Lum.
Down the line, the Maui-based program also could serve as a base for residency program expansion where some doctors receiving additional specialty training after graduation from medical school could do part of their specialty training on Maui, the medical school said.
"Expanding capacity for year-round preclinical and clinical education of medical students on a Neighbor Island rather than Oahu is expected to create a pipeline of new physicians positioned to initiate their practice on the Neighbor Islands," UH's budget request says.
Last year, Maui County was short 153 physicians, up from 141 in 2018, according to the final Hawaii Physician Workforce Assessment Project Report for 2019, conducted by the UH medical school.
"I think it's great and will definitely help with physician recruitment and retention," said West and South Maui Sen. Roz Baker, who chairs the committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health. "(It's) good for the Maui community, and I fully support this."
Fellow Maui County Sen. Gil Keith-Agaran, who is vice chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, the money committee in the Senate, and a member of the Higher Education Committee, agrees that the program is a "great idea."
"A residency program for family practice for the Big Island has led to additional doctors who decided to stay there after finishing their training. The medical school hopes that providing the same opportunity on Maui will have similar results," said Keith-Agaran, whose district includes Central Maui.
Some students may need to go to the Mainland for specialized training, but having them receive a portion of their education and training on Maui could lure them back to practice here, he said.
The school already has four to six Valley Isle residents in each medical school class, he added.
"Given the shortage of physicians on Maui, every little effort that moves the needle forward is a good thing," Keith-Agaran said.
Maui County Rep. Troy Hashimoto, whose committee memberships include House Finance, said that while the program will be costly, it could benefit Maui in the long run. He has heard that it can take $1 million to lure a single doctor from out of state to come to Maui to practice.
It's a choice of either putting in money at the front end for education of local students or at the back end to try to lure doctors into the state.
"If we don't do this, what are we going to do? We got to at least try it out. We have to do something," Hashimoto said.
The Central Maui state representative said he has been questioning UH officials on what could be done about the doctor shortage; he believes this is one of the possible solutions.
He noted that 50 percent of UH medical school graduates stay in state. But when graduates go to the Mainland for their residency programs, only 20 to 40 percent return to the state.
The medical school could use classrooms at UH-Maui College, while more specialized training could be done with participating physicians and Maui Memorial Medical Center, which is part of Maui Health System, a subsidiary of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, reports to the Legislature said.
"Maui Health fully supports UH's desire to expand their program to Maui," said Maui Health System CEO Michael Rembis in an email Tuesday. "We recently met with the dean and are committed to work closely with UH to help train physicians and improve the access to care on Maui. Furthermore, we support UH's request for additional funding that will allow them to train providers on Maui."
Faculty and staff will be recruited through normal UH recruitment practices, and the school would welcome applicants from Maui. Clinician-educators are expected to provide patient care in conjunction with health systems/practices on Maui, Buenconsejo-Lum said.
As for medical students studying on Maui, the intent is to have six new students per year, so that in four years, there will be 24 students on Maui, Buenconsejo-Lum said.
Since Dean Jerris Hedges began his tenure at the school in 2008, Buenconsejo-Lum said the head of the medical school has grown the medical class size from 62 to 77.
The 2023 class size is 77 students; 2022 class, 72; 2021 class, 70; 2020 class, 70; and 2019 class, 68 students.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.