Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 24, Number 10, 1 October 2007 — Top Doc [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Top Doc

A consultation with Physician of the Year Kalani Brady

By Derek Ferrar Public lnfurmatiun Specialist On Sept. 15, the Hawai'i Medical Association presentedNative Hawaiian doctor S. Kalani Brady with its Physician of the Year Award for 2007. The annual honor is given to Hawai'i doctors who are engaged in exemplary service to the community. An internist best known for his weekly TV appearances on the "Ask a Doctor" segment of KHON's morning news program, Brady is also dedicated to an amazing array of community work, particularly in the field of Hawaiian heahh care. Among a very long list of activities, he is an associate professor of Native Hawaiian heahh at the UH medical school, makes weekly visits to care for Hansen's disease patients at Kalaupapa, edits the Hawai'i Meelieal Joumal and recently served as president of the Hawaiian physician's association, 'Ahahui o nā Kauka. A gifted singer, he is also a regular at concert and musical theater performances on Hawai'i stages. A few days after he received the award, KWO managed to squeeze a few moments into Dr. Brady's overflowing appointment book for a consultation: Whal does receiving this award mean to you? Well, you know, physicians in general do a great deal of service, usually patient by patient. But many of them do a lot of community service as well, so, quite frankly, a lot of my colleagues are as deserving of this award as I am. I just tend to be a bit more puhlie because of the TV stuff. Whal inspired you to heeome doctor? You know, from the Hawaiian perspective, practitioners of

lā'au lapa'au (traditional herbal healing) were chosen by their teachers as children, and their training began when they were quite young. I don't mean it to elevate myself to that kind of level, but my parents remember me being interested in becoming a doctor from around age four or five, and I think I really did feel very early on that it was the calling to whieh I had been summoned. I first started doing medical research when I was a sophomore in high school, and worked at it every summer thereafter. Whal kiiul of topics do you teach in the UH medical school's Department of Native Hawaiian Health? A lot of cultural sensitivity and cultural competence. I teach a class to the first-year medical students on community heahh, where they get to hear speakers like Dr. Kekuni Blaisdell, who actually co-teaches with me, talk about why Native Hawaiians' health statistics may be worse in a lot of ways, and how we ean address that - not just in the eyes of western medicine, but in a larger cultural context. We've had a lā'au lapa'au practitioner eome and talk, and we actually work in the māla, the garden, that we have at the medical school, where we're growing healing plants. So they actually get their hands into the soil and start working on the lā'au. Also, it would do our department a great service if we ean menhon that we are eager for new patients in our Lau Ola elinie at Kuakini, where we see patients four days a week, regardless of insurance. Our number is 294-1178. Whal are some of the things you think ean he done to improve health care for Native Hawaiians ? I think one plaee where we

ean eonhnue to put our energy is in using the Native Hawaiian Heahh Care Systems that are already in plaee for increased puhlie education and awareness, along with community heahh centers that are culturally appropriate for the areas in whieh they are located. A lot of cultural competence in dealing with Native Hawaiian heahh lies in really reaching Hawaiians in places where we feel comfortable, whieh a lot of times is in our own community. It doesn't help to have brochures and other things that have been generated in Washington, D.C. or by a think tank in Boston; h helps to have Hawaiians developing materials and doing field testing to find out what's appropriate for Hawaiians. It's often said that Native Hawaiians are underrepresented in the medicalfield. What might you say to young Hawaiians to encourage them to explore health careers ? I mua. They should strive, kūlia, to go in the heahh professions, because we are definitely under-represented. This is a wonderful profession. It's a challenge, and we do work long hours, but it's a calling that has immense rewards. As a primary care doc, I consider my patients to be my friends, and it's a real honor to be entrusted with their heahh. □

NŪ HOU • NEWS

Among his many other activities, Kalani Brady, shown here on Kaho'olawe, teaches at UH's Department of Native Hawaiian Health and treats patients at Kalaupapa. -Photo: Detek Fem