Pictured: Malabed at the Hawai’i Health Workforce Summit poster competition in Waikīkī.
A junior studying Biology at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa won first prize for the research poster he presented at the 2017 Hawaiʻi Health Workforce Summit.
Jhon Michael Malabed wanted to examine ways that Filipino patients with diabetes or heart disease could avoid ending up hospitalized. “My project highlighted some of the social determinants of health for the Filipino community who have these chronic conditions,” Malabed explained.
He said he was motivated in his research by the lack of large-scale initiatives to specifically address the health needs of immigrant populations.
“I participated in the Hawaiʻi Health Workforce Summit with the goal to share the challenges patients with diabetes or heart disease face outside healthcare facilities. The poster competition allowed me to discuss the issues and health needs of our community with health professionals about how can we address or intervene,” said Malabed.
He describes actually winning the competition as the “cherry on top” to “It was a humbling feeling that some of the health professionals and judges took notice of all the hard work that I put in my research project,” he said.
