Surgery
Collaboration
Known for overseeing the Cross-Cultural Health Care Conference series from 2010 to 2023, the UHM Department of Surgery’s latest initiative will be hosting Cross-Cultural Health Care Research Updates on Friday, February 26, 2027 at the Ala Moana Hotel’s Garden Lanai Room. With the agenda close to being finalized, invited speakers include both local and national experts on various cross-cultural health care research topics. The impetus for the conference is the need for more empirical evidence to help substantiate the role of culture/diversity in both physician workforce development and patient care. It is critical for physicians and others involved in medical education and/or direct patient care to be familiar with existing research topics so that they can help to identify potential barriers and help develop solutions for: 1) advising/mentoring the future physician workforce and 2) training them to provide culturally appropriate care for all of their patients.
Dr. Sunny Nakae, Senior Associate Dean, Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, and Partnership and Professor of Medical Education, California University of Science and Medicine, will kick off the conference with her presentation on Current Diversity Issues in Growing the Physician Workforce. She will be followed by Dr. Kanoho Hosoda, Assistant Professor and Director, Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence, and Dr. Kiana Shiroma, Specialist and Director of the UHM Pre-Health/Pre-Law Advising Center, who will present their experiences and insights on premedical advising and mentoring. Dr. Angela Sy, Associate Professor, UHM Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology, and Pharmacology, will wrap up the morning by informing the audience about Undergraduate Mentorship Programs for Future Researchers/Physicians.
The afternoon sessions will focus on community-based cultural research projects, which are prevalent across JABSOM. Professor and Chair of the UHM Department of Native Hawaiian Health, Dr. Keawe Kaholokula will be leading a panel titled Rooted in Community, Sustained in Practice: 20 Years of Culturally Responsive, Community-Centered Health Promotion Research. His co-presenters are Adrienne Dillard, PhD, MSW, LCSW, Chief Executive Officer of Kula no nā Po‘e Hawai‘i (KULA), and B. Puni Kekauoha, Senior Vice President of KULA. Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum, Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer, and Dr. Neal Palafox, Professor of Family Medicine, will be hosting a panel on their funded research with Pacific Islander communities and, Dr. Deborah Goebert, Interim Chair of Psychiatry, will be leading a panel to present the UHM Department of Psychiatry’s various community-based research initiatives. The conference will then close with Dr. Philip Alberti, who is the Senior Director of Health Equity Research and Policy, and the Founding Director of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Center for Health Justice. Partly supported by the Robert T. Wong, M.D. Lectureship Fund, Dr. Alberti will be speaking on Current Priorities and Funding Opportunities in Health Equity Research.
Registration is now open at https://bit.ly/CCHC27
For more information on the conference, please visit: https://surgery.jabsom.hawaii.edu/conferences/index.html
You can also contact Maria Chun at mariachu@hawaii.edu if you have any questions.
We hope to see you there!