Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 6, 1 Iune 1997 — Vision: increasing the pool of Native Hawaiians physicians [ARTICLE]

Vision: increasing the pool of Native Hawaiians physicians

The Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence (NHCOE) at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) began in 1991 funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of health and Human Services. The creation of the NHCOE allowed the consolidation of over 25 years of program efforts for minorities in medicine into a coordinated, comprehensive effort to increase the number of native Hawaiians in medicine. The director of the Center is Dr. Curtis Takemo-to-Gentile, a Native Hawaiian physician. TakemotoGentile is also a faculty member of the medical school and the chair of the Family Practice and Community Health Department. He is both a former 'Imi Ho'ola student and a graduate of U.H medical school. His vision is to build a network of native Hawaiian providers who will serve as recruiters for JABSOM, role models, teachers and caretakers in native Hawaiian communities. Onee the pool of native Hawaiian physicians grows, Takemoto-Gentile believes the medical school will have the people power to seriously address the heahh issues of the Native Hawaiian community. For more information about the program and its services, please eall 956-5826 or look up their web page at http://www2.hawaii.edu/nhcoe.