Health focus on Hawaiians gets $5 million

By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser education writer

The Queen's Health Systems has committed $5 million over the next five years to make a department of Hawaiian health a reality at the John A. Burns School of Medicine.

Dr. Gary A. Okamoto, president and CEO of the parent entity of The Queen's Medical Center, called the partnership "a commitment to the health and healthcare of Native Hawaiians."

And, in making the announcement yesterday, he challenged the faculty of the new department to find answers to prevent the constant rise of diabetes, cancer, heart failure and behavioral health disorders among Hawaiians.

Despite past attempts to stop the slide, statistics have continued to worsen, said Okamoto.

For instance, the death rates in the Hawaiian community for diabetes are

50 percent higher than in

the community as a whole; 64 percent higher for asthma; 20 percent higher for heart disease; 22 percent higher for chronic lung disease; and 7 percent higher for hypertension.

The new department will become a reality after official approval by the University of Hawai'i administration, but its chairwoman, Dr. Marjorie Mau, has been planning it since January. It will start with three to four staff members, and grow to a 12- to 15-member staff in five years.

The department will receive $500,000 annually from the medical school. It also has applied for a $5 million research grant over five years from the National Institutes of Health.

Mau, who is of Chinese and Hawaiian descent, said the department's research efforts will focus on reduction and elimination of "health disparities in Native Hawaiians and other Pacific-based populations."

That will include working with other Hawaiian communities to disseminate research information, she said.

"In a state that leads the nation with 90 percent of the population having health insurance, "why is it that so many communities, especially Native Hawaiian communities, still suffer the worst health status?" Mau asked. "The department of Native Hawaiian health will investigate the whys, and, more importantly, focus on findings solutions."

Edwin Cadman, dean of the medical school, said the new department not only will support research to improve and enhance health in this community, "but we will go beyond health" — educating people of Hawaiian ancestry to become leaders in the healthcare industry.

That includes continuation of the Imi Ho'ola Program which began in 1973 to train Hawaiians to become physicians. The program adds 10 students each year.

The administrative offices and research operations for the new department will be located at the planned medical school site in Kaka'ako.

Reach Beverly Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.