Bringing More Doctors to Hawai‘i Island

Dr. Earl Bakken, Hawaiʻi Island resident and co-founder of Medtronic, Inc., has created the Lau Hawaiʻi Fund at the John A. Burns School of Medicine Department of Native Hawaiian Health (DNHH). His goal is to nurture a robust primary care physician workforce on Hawaiʻi Island by enhancing initiatives that work to increase the number of physicians from rural, underserved and/or Native Hawaiian communities.

“We are extraordinarily grateful to Dr. Bakken for his very generous support of JABSOM initiatives to reduce the physician shortage on Hawaiʻi Island and encourage students of Native Hawaiian ancestry to pursue careers in medicine,” said DNHH Chair Keawe Kaholokula.

The Lau Hawaiʻi Fund will help fund the following medical education training opportunities:

1. Select ʻImi Hoʻōla Post-Baccalaureate students will have the opportunity to complete a rural rotation on Hawaiʻi Island during the final phase of the ʻImi Hoʻōla program.
2. First- and second-year medical students will serve as peer mentors to middle and high school students and UH Hilo undergraduates as part the Native Hawaiian Center of Excellence workforce development initiative on Hawaiʻi Island. The goal of this activity will be to expose students to the health professions and to provide them with guidance and mentoring toward becoming a health professional with an emphasis on serving Hawai‘i Island.
3. Select third-year medical students will have the opportunity to complete a 6-month longitudinal rotation on Hawai‘i Island. The goal of this rotation is to introduce medical students to clinical practice on Hawai‘i Island with the hopes they will choose to return to practice on Hawai‘i Island after completing residency.