|
JABSOM News |
|
|
|
Barry and Virginia Weinman Create $1 Million Fellowship Program at JABSOM
Date: July 24, 2006
PRESS RELEASE
Gift Will Help Keep the Best and Brightest in Hawai‘i
(Honolulu, Hawai‘i) – The University of Hawai‘i Foundation (UHF) is pleased to announce that Barry and Virginia Weinman have created a $1 million fellowship program for students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM). The Barry and Virginia Weinman Fellowship will assist University of Hawai‘i medical students who plan to intern and practice in Hawai‘i.
“We are very pleased to make this gift, which will help strengthen the medical profession in Hawai‘i. There is an ongoing shortage of doctors in Hawai‘i and our fellowship is a tool to help address this issue by recruiting and retaining future physicians,” said Virginia Weinman.
...Full Story
|
Federal grant to JABSOM improves training for Hawaii pediatricians
Date: July 24, 2006
A new federally funded program at the John A. Burns School of Medicine is improving training for Hawaii pediatricians in treating children with developmental and behavioral issues, under a 5-year grant for $725,000.
The fellowship training program at the Department Pediatrics is one of only nine in the country and the only one on the West Coast.
Physicians in the program become expert at conditions such as autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. They learn about the fields of developmental psychology, child psychiatry, child neurology and rehabilitative medicine to improve systems of care for children with disabilities and other issues.
The Hawaii Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP) Leadership Training Program was recently accredited by the national Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). The program trains physicians in the relatively new board-certified subspecialty of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP).
Program Director is Dr. Jeffrey Okamoto, who is also medical director of Rehabilitation Services at Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children. He has been especially interested in the interaction between early intervention programs, schools and clinical services. Co-Director Dr. Beppie Shapiro has expertise in physician understanding of early intervention programs. She is also a leader in program evaluation and research relating to infants and young children with special needs. Both Dr. Okamoto and Dr. Shapiro are also faculty for the Center on Disability Studies in the College of Education at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. CDS is an important collaborator with the Hawaii DBP training program.
As recognition of their work in the disabilities area, Dr. Okamoto was given the "Outstanding Community Contribution to Persons with Disabilities" award in 2006 and Dr. Shapiro was given the “Outstanding Faculty Contribution to Persons with Disabilities” award in 2005, both awards presented at the Pacific Rim Conference on Disabilities by the Center on Disability Studies.
Two physicians are currently being trained in the Hawaii DBP leadership training program - each doing a three-year-long Fellowship program. They are Dr. Barbara Samuels, who is originally from New York and also has a strong background in public health, and Dr. Brian Que, who is originally from Guam and an expert on Asperger Disorder.
###
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MEDICAL SCHOOL PROFESSORS NAMED TO RESEARCH CHAIRS
Date: July 14, 2006
Professors Elizabeth Tam, MD, and Marjorie Mau, MD, have been selected as the first appointees to new endowed chairs at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).
Dr. Tam’s chair in respiratory health was created through $1 million in gifts last year from the American Lung Association of Hawai’i and the Hawai’i Community Foundation’s Leahi Fund, which each donated $500,000.
She also serves as chair of JABSOM’s Department of Medicine. Dr. Tam’s selection enables her to further research into why Hawaii’s people suffer high numbers of respiratory ailments – and whether those ailments are aggravated by Big Island vog (volcanic air pollution). Other causes may be unusually high concentrations of mold, pollen or dust mites.
Dr. Mau was appointed to the Myron P. Thompson endowed chair for research in Native Hawaiian health, established through a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Mau currently serves as chair of JABSOM’s Department of Native Hawaiian Health. The endowed position enables her to further her research into health disparities that disproportionately affect Native Hawaiians, particularly in areas such as diabetes and obesity.
“Research by Dr. Tam and Dr. Mau are critically important in fulfilling our Medical School’s goal of improving the health of Hawaii’s people,” says JABSOM Interim Dean Sam Shomaker.
Added Sterling Yee, President of the American Lung Association of Hawai’i: “We’re proud to support Dr. Tam’s outstanding scientific research because it greatly advances our understanding of how to prevent lung disease.”
###
|
FEDS APPROVE PROPOSED BIOSAFETY LAB FOR JABSOM IN KAKA'AKO
Date: July 13, 2006
The National Institutes of Health has given the go-ahead to a proposal to relocate the proposed Pacific Regional Biosafety Lab from Pearl City to Kaka’ako, on the site of the University of Hawaii’s John A. Burns School of Medicine.
The $37.5 million state-of-the-art lab would enable researchers to develop new diagnostic tests, drugs and vaccines for infectious Asia-Pacific diseases such as avian influenza, SARS, tuberculosis and West Nile encephalitis.
The lab is critical for health authorities to develop an early warning disease detection system for imported exotic pathogens such as pandemic influenza, for which Hawaii is highly vulnerable. Research in the new lab will contribute greatly to fulfilling the vision of Kaka’ako as a life science park.
...Full Story
|
Tenure and promotions announced - message from Dean Shomaker
Date: July 10, 2006
We would like to congratulate the following faculty on their recent tenure and/or promotions:
Tenure - Professor
Linda Chang - Medicine
Marian Melish - Pediatrics
Tenure - Associate Professor
Jason Maddock - Public Health Sciences & Epidemiology
Promotion - Associate Professor to Professor
Steve Ward - Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology
Promotion - Assistant Professor to Associate Professor
Joshua Jacobs - Medicine
David Kurahara - Pediatrics
Meta Lee - Pediatrics
Susan Steinemann - Surgery
Congratulations on all of your hard work and accomplishments!
T. Samuel Shomaker, Interim Dean
|
|
|
|
|
|
