Pictured: Andrea Hermosura, PhD, in the operating room at The Queen’s Medical Center. Amanda Shell photo.
By Tina Shelton, JABSOM Communications Director
The Queen’s Medical Center has made measurable strides in improving its patient care — and its work environment — by assigning a certified psychologist to the Cardiac Care Operating Room. The move has helped the interdisciplinary team in surgery communicate better, and work more effectively as a team. The psychologist is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Native Hawaiian Health, who serves as the Queen’s Health Equity Scholar, funded by Queen’s.
Queen’s also is improving patient care statewide by investing in future physicians, doctors who get their start in the UH medical school’s ʻImi Hoʻōla Baccalaureate Program for scholars from underserved or disadvantaged backgrounds.
In this video produced by The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), meet the Queen’s Health Equity Scholar and an internal medicine physician at the Queen Emma Clinic. The video also features JABSOM alumni Dr. Todd Seto (1991) and Dr. Alan Suyama, (1979), in addition to internist Tui Lauilefue, MD (‘Imi 2008, JABSOM 2012).
Text of complete story:
Narrator: When the team in scrubs enters the cardio surgery suite at The Queen’s Medical Center (QMC), innovation comes along.
It’s not just the cutting-edge equipment here. Queen’s has invested in a person, psychologist Andrea Hermosura (PhD), who is making the team better by-
Andrea Hermosura: “Standing off in a corner trying to be invisible and just watching certain behaviors.”
