Posted on: Thursday, January 23, 2003
HMSA gives med school $1 million
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Education Writer
How should diabetes best be treated? What if the person is aged? Or the disease is diagnosed late? What if there are other chronic conditions?
There may not be definitive answers to those questions.
Physicians are dependent on protocols already developed that may not take into account the latest research, newest devices or outcomes from other areas of the community.
That's part of the challenge for a new research partnership that's been forged between the University of Hawai'i John A. Burns School of Medicine and the Hawai'i Medical Services Association.
Yesterday HMSA gave the UH Medical School $1 million in research money earmarked for research into quality care in Hawai'i. It comes on the heels of $5 million from the Queen's Health System to establish a Department of Native Hawaiian Health at the medical school and $4.5 million from the National Institutes of Health for its faculty. Last year, medical school faculty brought in $48.8 million in grants and contracts.
The new money will pay for the HMSA Chair for Health Care Services Quality Research, and already a national search is under way to fill the chairmanship. Three to five researchers will complete the team, along with three to five support staff members.
"With HMSA as our partner I believe we can develop a nationally recognized healthcare services research program that will not only benefit the medical school, but especially the patients of our state," said Medical School Dean Edwin Cadman. He hopes to have the program operating by July 1.
"If you have a heart attack, what is the best and most effective way to treat it?" Cadman asked. "What if you have a stroke? Or pneumonia? A cold?
"That's quality medicine ... And quality care is cost-effective care.
"If we have the medical school espousing quality of care and setting guidelines, then it's not the hospitals, not the insurance carriers. It's an independent organization. And that's one of the responsibilities a medical school has in the community."
UH President Evan Dobelle called the partnership "an extraordinary investment in Hawai'i's future" and a chance to both enhance UH's global reputation for research excellence and provide for the immediate healthcare needs of the community.
With the new money, researchers at the medical school will be able to take closer looks at treatment regimens for diseases that strike Hawai'i patients at higher than average rates compared to other states. Diabetes, asthma, heart disease and breast cancer are just some of the things that hit Hawai'i's diverse population in devastating numbers.
"By all accounts there is a shortage of the kind of penetrating research that would allow decision-makers to act with the full knowledge of best practices in the field," Dobelle said. "Despite all we have learned about the human body, we have not learned quite so much on how to administer the knowledge — to effectively bring the best quality care to the most patients."
