Workforce Development
Alumni News
Pathology
Video edited Deborah Manog Dimaya. Scripted by Matthew Campbell.
When Dr. Jeff Hayashi isn’t studying slides under a microscope, there’s a good chance he’s tinkering with brass instruments or playing music. A new alumnus of the John A. Burns School of Medicine, Hayashi has always found joy in the details—the way tiny parts come together to create something bigger, whether it’s a French horn or a cancer diagnosis.
" I like art. I play a lot of music and one of my hobbies is brass instrument repair," said Hayashi. "Pathologists tend to have very niche hobbies."
Pathology might seem an unlikely destination for someone who once dreamed of becoming a trauma surgeon. But as a JABSOM graduate preparing to enter the University of Hawaiʻi Pathology Residency Program at the Queen’s Medical Center, Hayashi says this path has never felt more right.
A Local Boy Comes Home
Born and raised in Hawaiʻi, Hayashi left the islands to earn his biology degree at the University of Portland, but always knew he wanted to come home.
" For some of us we just love being in the islands and that's where our family is so it kind of drives us to stay and that's certainly true of me. I couldn't imagine living anywhere else," said Hayashi. After college, he went straight to JABSOM—saving time, but arriving with less clinical experience than many of his classmates. He wasn't familiar with the wide variety of physician specialties out there. However, there was one that caught his attention early on.
" I always liked histology. I always liked understanding things on a cellular basis and when I talked to pathologists about that, it was almost second nature to them as well," Hayashi said.
A Perfect Fit
During his third-year clinical rotation at JABSOM, it all began to click.
" I did some pathology rotations and really compared them side by side and just did pulse checks... in what settings was I happiest or did I feel most fulfilled? Did I feel like I was really contributing to the team in a meaningful way? And I thought that I could do that in pathology," Hayashi said.
As Jeff progressed, it became clearer that his calling was, indeed, pathology. He even found similarities with what he liked to do in his spare time, including playing the game, "Find the Sniper" on Reddit.
"It's like when there's a picture of a field and there's a rabbit hidden and I like to play those games to try to find hidden objects," said Hayashi. "It really also kind of drives in this point that in pathology you're not gonna see things unless you know what you're looking for and you're actively looking for it.
A Need Close to Home
This year, two recent JABSOM MD alumni matched to the Pathology Residency Program at the Queenʻs Medical Center: Drs. Hayashi and Carley Kida. Their timing couldn’t be better. According to the latest JABSOM Area Health Education Center's latest Hawaiʻi Health Workforce Report, the state is experiencing a 43% shortage of pathologists, with the most need occuring in the neighbor islands.
"We are thrilled that both Jeff and Carley are going to be with us. I’ve known them since they were first year medical students. They’ve both shown very strong interest in pathology since that time and they’ve done rotations with all of us and we are just delighted that they’re going to be residents with us," said Chair of the JABSOM Department of Pathology Dr. Karen Thompson.
Many may think these two will be conducting autopsies, but there’s a lot more to this speciality.
"Pathology used to be an observational science where patients would die and we'd do autopsies and figure out why they died. That was probably true in the 1820s. Pathology's changed a lot since the 1820s," said Hayashi. "We don't have an observational science anymore. It's a field that is really broad and it informs a lot of different specialties. One nice thing about pathology-- it kind of leads specialties because as medicine becomes more precise and more specific with molecular markers and sequencing, we end up having this field that is very, very scientific and it's kind of driving these other specialties forward."
Jeff will be focused on surgical pathology, he’ll be responsible for examining tissues and identifying cancers. He is also interested in transfusion.
"Does this cell look strange? Does the nuclei look odd. Are there too many nuclei, too few nuclei? Are they staining with this pattern or a different pattern? It's a lot of pattern recognition, but when you're able to tell the clinical team, 'Hey, I think this is cancer, you should be resecting a little bit more out of it.' Or 'maybe you're good, maybe your margins are clear.' That's really valuable to the team," said Hayashi.
He adds, "and it also makes you feel really special because I think pathologists have some talents that are very rare among other doctors and being able to see things that other people can't see."
He is excited to begin residency in July.
" I like to tell people, 'Hey, if you do a pathology rotation, you'll probably like it. And you'll probably find that the preceptors are very nice. The atmosphere is reasonable in terms of hours. And the science in everything is really exciting and a lot of the things that drive people to go into medicine, I think can be applied to pathology," Hayashi said.