A John A. Burns School of Medicine program designed to get more family doctors interested in working on the Neighbor Islands will begin later this year, helped by $535,000 of funding from the HMSA Foundation.

The school yesterday said it will expand its family medicine residency program for doctors who wish to work in rural and underserved areas to Hilo and has plans to expand it to other islands as more funding becomes available.

"This is a first step toward solving shortages of doctors on the Neighbor Islands," said Gregg Takayama, spokesman for the medical school. "We've been wanting to do it for years. What's been lacking has not been the will but the resources."

The medical school hopes to encourage more physicians to locate to the Neighbor Islands by having people in its family medicine residency program spend time practicing on the Neighbor Islands. The school said doctors tend to set up practices in areas where they complete their residency training.

More than $300,000 of the HMSA Foundation's money will be provided in the first year of the program, helping to pay salaries and set up offices and equipment for residents who will work at a clinic attached to the Hilo Medical Center, Takayama said. He said Hilo was selected because it has the most pressing need for physicians and that the school hopes to expand the program in coming years to Maui and Kaua'i.

A measure pending at the Legislature would provide another $140,000 for the program. More support may come from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and from sponsoring hospitals, the school said.

Big Island Mayor Harry Kim said the program will add quickly to the number of family doctors on the Big Island. He said the county was pleased the University of Hawai'i's medical school, HMSA and Hilo Medical Center had come up with a way to help address a healthcare crisis in Hawai'i County.

Reach Greg Wiles at gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com.