Pictured: Dr. Kamal Masaki, Katherine Kim, and Dr. Aida Wen.
Katherine Kim says she has had the privilege over 30 years of getting to know and working with some of the brightest and most committed people in healthcare in Hawai’i. “It’s been a long and interesting journey,” said Katherine, who received a service award this month from the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) for ten years of service as an RCUH employee in the UH Department of Geriatric Medicine. The ten-year award is well-deserved, according to Department Chair Dr. Kamal Masaki, who notes that the award only covers one-third of the 30 years Katherine Kim has actually devoted to the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).
She began her 30-year career at the Kuakini Gerontology Center in the early 1980’s, at about the same time that Dr. Patricia Blanchette (JABSOM MD 1979) started the JABSOM Geriatric Medicine Program and the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship Program. Dr. Blanchette also is a Distinguished Alumna of the UH Mānoa and Leeward Community College.
Katherine Kim’s efforts led to a National Parkinson’s Foundation “Parkinson Disease Center of Excellence” designation awarded and housed within the University of Hawaiʻi Department of Geriatric Medicine.
Katherine transitioned from the Kuakini Gerontology Center to the Division of Geriatric Medicine offices under a HRSA grant called the Geriatric Education Center (GEC). As its program coordinator she helped plan and provide educational programs to healthcare professionals in the community, the state, and the Pacific region.
Excellence in Parkinson’s Disease Care
In the early 1990’s she was given what she describes as a “tremendous opportunity” to work with the Parkinson’s Disease community. Through grants from the American Parkinson Disease Association and later with the National Parkinson Foundation, Katherine was able to organize and create a network of patient and caregiver support groups that covered Oʻahu, Maui, Hawaiʻi and Kauaʻi; as well as to provide professional and patient educational activities related to Parkinson’s Disease. An NPF Kuakini Parkinson Disease Center of Excellence designation was awarded and housed within the Department of Geriatric Medicine, which provided a Parkinson Disease Interdisciplinary Consultation Clinic for PD patients to access.
This interdisciplinary consult team was comprised of Dr. Melvin Yee as its medical director, a nurse educator, a medical social worker, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, and a speech language therapist. At the hub of this activity was Katherine, coordinating everything and everyone.
