Doctors gather again in Honolulu
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
More than 2,000 exhibitors, 4,000 doctors and several thousand of their family members and support staff have converged on Honolulu this weekend for the National Medical Association convention, the second the group has held in Hawai'i since 1997.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
Opening ceremonies, presided over by actor Danny Glover, were held last night at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Waikiki. Former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher was honored by the Association for his work to eliminate disparity in health care. Association president Lucille Perez gave Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., an award for his dedication to making affordable healthcare available to all Americans.
Actor Danny Glover presided over opening ceremonies last night at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for the medical association's annual convention.
Jackson will speak Wednesday evening at the Hawai'i Convention Center. Former U.S. Surgeon Joycelyn Elders, former Health and Human Services Director Louis Sullivan and the director of the National Cancer Institute, Andrew von Eschenbach are also among those slated to attend the conference. Singer Patti LaBelle will hold a charity concert at the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel tonight to raise scholarship money for minority medical students.
Convention workshops and seminars, on topics from bioterrorism to the shortage of radiologists in the United States, will continue through Aug. 8 at the Hawai'i Convention Center.
Randall Maxey, chairman of the association and a scientist who has pioneered research in complications to the treatment of diabetes and hypertension in South Pacific Islanders, said the convention's theme centers on "cultural competence" in the medical profession.
"It's the ultimate of clinical competence," Maxey said. Cultural competence means knowing what diseases are most likely to affect different groups of patients and being knowledgeable and compassionate enough to treat the diseases aggressively, he said.
It means searching for alternate financial sources to ensure all treatments, including aggressive and expensive procedures such as transplants and dialysis, are available to all patients, including minorities or people of color, he said.
It means ensuring that clinical trials of drugs and other forms of treatment are conducted on experimental groups that include minorities and people of color. And it means knowing how to engender trust in patients, he said.
"Many doctors don't even touch their patients," Maxey said yesterday. "They stand on the other side of the room."
The National Medical Association represents more than 25,000 African-American doctors nationwide. It held its convention in Ho-nolulu in 1997 and plans to return in 2007.
"The people of Hawai'i have been so friendly to us," Maxey said. "We've voted to return every few years."
Zenaida Jarvis McLin of the Hawai'i Visitors and Convention Bureau said the organization is also considering returning to Honolulu in 2012.
This year alone, the group is expected to raise visitor spending by $15.2 million, she said. And $1.2 million of that amount will be collected as state tax revenue, she said.
The doctors aren't spending all their time in seminars, either. Many arrived early, toured O'ahu and branched out to the other islands.
Texas optometrist John Caynon said he and his wife, neurologist Josephine Session, took a short trip to Maui before the start of the conference.
Reed Wilson, an internal medicine doctor from Maryland, said he had quickly zeroed in on a favorite activity of those in the medical profession.
"I've been playing golf," he said.
Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or at kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.
