Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Program Gives Students a Taste of Medical School

When Bodhi Williams arrived at JABSOM last week, the Kihei Charter School student came with a question that many high school students wrestle with: "Is medicine really the right path for me?"

"I've wanted to do it for a long time," Williams said. "I've started having doubts, but this week will tell me if it's really right for me."

One day into JABSOM's 19th Medical Diagnosis and Treatment (MDT) Program, Bodhi was already feeling more confident.

"I think it is," he said.  “I’ve been testing out what I'd be doing if I were in the field. I've seen what it's like to interview patients and take vital signs. I'm about to go and research how troponin affects your chances of heart attacks, and I'm excited to continue researching and seeing if it's right for me.”

Each summer, MDT gives high school students from across Hawaiʻi and beyond the opportunity to experience what life as a medical student is really like. Throughout the week, 84 students work through the kinds of medical scenarios they may one day encounter as physicians.

This year, donor support made it possible for 12 of 15 neighbor island students from Kauaʻi, Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi Island to participate.

For Bodhi, opportunities like MDT simply don't exist at home.

"We've got to come to the University of Hawaiʻi and really see what it's like to be in a school and to learn what the medical field is like," he said. "You don't get to do that on our islands. This gives students the opportunity to really test that out."

Charlotte Jo, a student from Waiākea High School, hopes to take what she's learning back to Hawaiʻi Island.

"I'm hoping to learn more so I can come back, serve my community, and really help out our healthcare system," she said. "We really need it, especially here on the Big Island."

For Jakayla Castillo, a student from Kealakehe High School, one of the biggest lessons has been learning alongside students from across the state.

"I know lots of people from many different places are here," she said. "Knowing that someone my age is pursuing the same things as myself...we can definitely learn from each other."

For some, MDT is where the desire to do medicine starts.

Second-year JABSOM student Jasmine Chow attended MDT in 2014 when she was a student at Maryknoll School and still exploring possible careers. She saw herself in Bodhi at the time because she wasn't convinced medicine was for her.

"It opened my eyes to healthcare," Chow said. "It encouraged me to explore it a little more."

That week inspired her to volunteer in hospitals, seek out shadowing opportunities, and continue exploring healthcare. More than a decade later, she was accepted into JABSOM and spent part of her summer returning to MDT, this time as a mentor.

"It feels full circle," she said.  “Seeing the high school students reminds me so vividly of when I was in their position. I guess it makes me feel really proud of myself and how far I've come because back then, I never pictured I'd be here.”

Part of Chow’s mentoring is giving advice. She encourages students to ask questions, seek experiences, and not be afraid to hear "no."

"The experience is invaluable," she said. "Nothing's the same as being in the clinic and picturing yourself in that role."

Students also experienced a new addition to MDT this year.



Dr. Bryan Brown introduced a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired learning activity that transformed cardiovascular disease into an interactive adventure. Students worked together to battle characters representing diabetes, smoking, high cholesterol, and heart disease, with the story unfolding based on the roll of the dice.

“ I was exposed to Dungeons and Dragons and tabletop role-playing, and immediately said, ‘This has to be in medical education,’” Brown said. “I’d already always thought of medications and physiology as sort of a fantasy world, as really a way to feel immersed and make it memorable. So when I realized you could do that with just the theater of the mind, shared imagining, and storytelling, I said, ‘Sign me up.’ This is the first time after those five years that I've done it for an educational audience.”

Brown’s goal was to make complex medical concepts memorable by combining storytelling with active learning, and for student Hayes Hopkins, it worked.

"It came across very clearly and was understandable, while at the same time being very enjoyable," Hayes said.

Nineteen years after the Medical Diagnosis and Treatment Program began, many of its participants, like Chow, have gone on to become medical students, and the hope is that many more will leave with the dream of becoming future physicians for Hawaiʻi.

“ I would say there were a lot who are leaving interested in medicine,” Chow said. “A lot of the people here are transitioning to college, and they already have their mindset, but I would say the younger girls who are maybe sophomores or even going to junior year, you can see the interest in their eyes. I would say that the kids that I'm teaching just constantly remind me about myself in each workshop.”