Patricia Lanoie Blanchette, MD, MPH
Dr. Pat Blanchette is a Clinical Professor of Geriatric Medicine in the John A. Burns School of Medicine and also serves as the Associate Director for Administration and Chief Operating Officer for the UH Cancer Center. She also has served as CEO of UCERA (University Clinical, Education and Research Associates), the medical school's faculty practice plan. A few years ago, she founded the Teaching Nursing Home (TNH) program whereby medical school faculty members in geriatrics provide care to residents of many of Oahu's nursing homes. In the TNH program medical students, residents, and fellows learn to provide excellent medical care to frail elders. In this way, more well-trained geriatricians become available to provide nursing home care to relieve the shortage of geriatricians both now and in the future.
Dr. Blanchette is a product of both UH system and the Ivy League. She earned an A.A. degree at Leeward Community College, a B.A. in Pre-Professional Studies at UH Mānoa, and she earned concurrent M.D. and M.PH. degrees in Gerontology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) and the UH School of Public Health. She then completed her medical training with an internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, followed by a two-year fellowship in Geriatric Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Upon completing her fellowship at Harvard, she was recruited back to JABSOM to start the state's first medical education program in Geriatric Medicine and thus she became the first fellowship-trained geriatrician in the state of Hawai‘i.
Dr. Blanchette is a recognized expert in normal cognitive aging, decisional capacity, and in Alzheimer's disease. She has provided extensive community service, including having served as president of the Aloha Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association and as a member of the association's national board.
