Grants will advance Native Hawaiian health research
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
When representatives from the National Institutes of Health wound up a visit to Hawai'i over the weekend, they left what was essentially a blank check for research money available to the University of Hawai'i, some of it earmarked for study of traditional health practices by Native Hawaiians and other Pacific and Asian peoples.
In the last year, research money at the university's John A. Burns School of Medicine has doubled under dean Edwin Cadman, going from about $30 million to $60 million. But that's only the beginning.
Cadman said the school's projections are for $100 million in research money "within three or four years," said Cadman.
He's already positioning the medical school to create a department of Native Hawaiian health that would not only draw a solid financial base for research in this area but would also begin to address the tragic health statistics within the Native Hawaiian community.
Native Hawaiians have some of the worst health statistics in the state, dying in greater percentages from such illnesses as diabetes, cancers and cardiovascular disease. Often their diseases are diagnosed at later stages, when they are more difficult to treat.
Stephen E. Strauss, director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of NIH, took particular interest in exploring Native Hawaiian health practices, visiting lomilomi and la'au lapa'au practitioners in areas predominantly Native Hawaiian, including the Wai'anae Coast. He encouraged researchers to look into these fertile areas, where few studies has been done.
"We want to encourage applications that have to do with native practices or Asian practices that have become entrenched here," said Strauss.
At the same time, NIH acting Deputy Director Yvonne Maddox said that, nationally, there are not enough comprehensive statistics on the health of individual minority groups in Hawai'i, especially Native Hawaiians.
"It's all lumped together as 'Pacific Islanders,'" she said. "We don't have those numbers from the Native Hawaiian community."
Without good data, it's difficult to have a beginning point for research, and to know what's effective in making a change.
NIH offers an added incentive for young minority researchers to apply for grants: It will pay up to $35,000 a year to repay student loans, for a maximum of two years.
Approximately 100,000 applications for NIH grants are received annually, said Strauss, but only one in three or four get the money, with about 10,000 new research awards a year.
NIH has a $23 billion budget this year, and 85 percent of it leaves Washington for research projects. But Maddox said Hawai'i is getting only a small fraction of that money.
NIH is particularly interested in addressing racial and ethnic disparities in health statistics, Maddox told a breakfast meeting of local leaders at Central Pacific Bank, and now is an excellent time for Hawai'i to get money it needs in this area. Last year, a National Center for Minority Health was founded as part of NIH, with a budget of $158 million. There's also a new National Center for Bioimaging and Bioengineering, with a budget of $40.5 million.
Both Cadman and new UH President Evan Dobelle see research money as a powerful tool to help create financial autonomy for the medical school and put the university as a whole on a stronger financial footing.
The planned biomedical science facilities, scheduled to have its headquarters in Kaka'ako, would be a key hub in that plan.
Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
