Cadman, 60, told the UH Board of Regents that he has been diagnosed with a neuro-degenerative disorder called Primary Progressive Aphasia, a language-based dementia that manifests itself in the inability to express thoughts orally and sometimes in writing.

There is no drug treatment for the disease, he said.

Cadman came to Hawai'i in 1999 from Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital, bringing a fresh start to Hawai'i's ailing medical school. Under his stewardship, the medical school has gained a new $150 million Kaka'ako campus and benefited from increases in research faculty and record levels of federal grants.

Cadman will now become a professor on the medical school faculty.