Pictured: 2018 EME award winners present at the ceremony (Dr. Sean Munnelly not pictured.)
Seven faculty members are recognized by the student body
By the JABSOM Enquirer
Medical students at the University of Hawai’i (UH) John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) revealed the winners of the second-annual Excellence in Medical Education Awards (known as the “EME’s” for short) at a recent Medical Education Student Interest Group (MESIG) meeting. Seven awards were announced, one for each of the seven JABSOM Graduation Objectives.
Winners of the 2018 EME awards are:
Lifelong Learning: Dr. David Horio
The Biological Sciences: Dr. Jane Uyehara-Lock
The Care of Patients: Dr. Damon Sakai
Oral and Written Communication Skills: Dr. Richard Podolny
Populational and Community Health: Dr. Reni Soon
Professionalism: Dr. Richard Kasuya
Personal Health and Well-Being: Dr. Sean Munnelly
Coordinated by the MESIG, nominations were solicited from medical students, and an election held to determine the winners. Each of the awardees were cited for their serving as role models for the particular Graduation Objective. Comments from nominating students included:
“Dr. Horio created a learning environment conducive to the exploration of the MD6 topics while also pushing us to be the best physicians-in-training that we could be. Dr. Horio exemplifies a mentor, physician, and human being that has dedicated himself – and through his great example inspires others to dedicate themselves – to life-long learning.”
“Dr. Uyehara-Lock demonstrated dedication to excellence by ensuring that students understood the biological sciences associated with neurology…By implicating a comprehensive teaching method, Dr. Uyehara-Lock was able to translate her students’ apprehensions into educational success.”
“(Dr. Soon) is quite passionate about the change that we can make in improving the safety of all women in accessing care. As enthusiastic as she is, Dr. Soon is still able to come across as realistic and pragmatic in her approach and serves as an excellent role model for the role that students can play as advocates for people and communities.”
“Dr. Munnelly took the time to ask about my interests outside of medicine, and encouraged me to make time for them while in medical school and beyond. He is a role model in that while at work, he was 100% present with his patients, but he also prioritizes his passions after the work day is over. This lesson of caring for the mind, body and spirit will be invaluable to me as I progress in my career.”
Faculty reactions to their awards
The faculty who were honored with the awards were all deeply appreciative of being recognized.
“I was touched that some of my tutorial students thought enough about ideas that we discussed to think that I might be an example of one of the graduation objectives, especially the one on life-long learning,” said Dr. David Horio. “It reaffirmed my interest in working with medical students.”
Dr. Reni Soon, awardee for Populational & Community Health adds, “Recognition from students and residents/fellows are the highest and most valuable honors for me. In doing the work we do, sometimes your cup gets empty…and you look for things to fill your cup so you can keep going. Seeing a sick patient get better, having a good patient interaction, getting a paper published – all of those refill my cup. And this definitely filled up several cups for me. So thank you!!!”
Dr. Jane Uyehara-Lock, the winner of the Basic Sciences award sees the MESIG as helping to shape the future.
“I’m so happy to see so many medical students interested in medical education. We need more educators in medicine and your work in this interest group is crucial for the future of medical education. I hope to work with all of (the MESIG students) as future colleagues in medical education.”
A tradition in-the-making…
Brandon Ing, current MESIG President, had this to say about the EME awards:
“The awards started last year as our first school-wide event, established by the 2016-2017 MESIG board and class representatives. We’d like to extend a special thanks to the current MESIG class representatives, Jordan Wang (Class of 2018), Laura Kurata (Class of 2019), Carrie Ip (Class of 2020) and Jenna Yoshisato (Class of 2021) for their hard work in making this such a successful event.”
MESIG past-president Erika Noel added, “The way in which we started the EMEs actually came from an idea during a MESIG board meeting on how students can acknowledge those involved in our medical education through awards. From that idea, the MESIG class representatives and the president came together to define the criteria for these awards. The response we got not only from the medical students through our nomination and voting process, but also those who were awarded was extremely positive! Those who were awarded shared how honored they were to receive an award organized exclusively by students, and MESIG is so proud to have started this annual tradition that means so much to everyone!”
The JABSOM Enquirer, our valued UH Med Now news source who likes to remain anonymous, wants to congratulate all of the faculty awardees and thank the Medical Education Student Interest Group for organizing this meaningful recognition for JABSOM’s dedicated faculty members.