Pictured: Members of the JABSOM MD Class of 2021 last July. Amanda Shell photo.
By UH Med Now
On the heels of a successful Match Day, in which its most recent MD Candidates matched into training programs in Hawaiʻi and on the U.S. Mainland, the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) has is once again among the top medical schools in America, outperforming 90% of schools in its percentage of its graduates performing primary care.
In new results from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) the UH medical school is:
“Both the number of students who choose primary care specialties and the number who remain or return to treat patients in Hawaiʻi after completing their training are critical to stemming the growing shortage of physicians in our state,” said Dr. Jerris Hedges, JABSOM Dean.
The AAMC is comprised of all 151 accredited U.S. and 17 accredited Canadian medical schools; nearly 400 major teaching hospitals and health systems, including 51 Department of Veterans Affairs medical centers; and more than 80 academic societies.
“Primary Care” fields include Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and can also include Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology physicians and Geriatric Medicine physicians. To become members of these fields, medical school graduates undertake postgraduate training from between three to eight years, or longer if they further specialize in Fellowship programs.
The University of Hawaiʻi (JABSOM) oversees 17 accredited Postgraduate Residency and Fellowship training programs, with some 225 MDs training annually within medical centers designated as teaching hospitals throughout the state.
JABSOM partner teaching hospitals including those of The Queen’s Health Systems, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health (Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children, Pali Momi Medical Center, Straub Medical Center), Kuakini Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs, Tripler Army Medical Center, Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific, Shriners Hospital for Children, Wahiawā General Hospital, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health and multiple other sites.