Pictured: Left (front to back)- Jerrick Laimana, Josiah Situmeang, Elizabeth Seamon; Right (front to back)- Wilfredo Del Mundo, Mayumi Fernandez, Kameko Karasaki, all members of the JABSOM MD Class of 2021, with Dr. Mary Ann Antonellli and Amy Rohlfs of the VA at Tripler Medical Center in September.
The John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) at the University of Hawaiʻi values its training partnerships with hospitals and medical clinics and with volunteer MD clinical faculty (more than 1,200 of them statewide!) in doctor’s offices throughout the islands. On Veteran’s Day, we were honored to receive mention by Jennifer S. Gutowski, Director of the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Health Care System (VAPIHCS), in a column she wrote in the Hawai’i Army Weekly.
Part of the column read:
“We oversee more than 450 trainees who are Hawaiʻi’s future health care workforce. VAPIHCS has an affiliation with the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine to provide education and research to medical students. Investing in them is an investment for Hawaiʻi and our Veterans! VAPIHCS is now supporting the Million Veteran Project (MVP), a national research project. It is the world’s largest genomic database linked to a health care system through which VA will learn more about how genes affect health to improve health care for Veterans. To date we have enrolled more than 1,400 Veterans here in Hawaiʻi and 703K nationally.”
Dr. Mary Ann Antonelli, Associate Chief of Staff for Education and Designated Learning Officer at the VAPIHCS, is a Clinical Professor of Medicine with JABSOM and formerly was Director of Student Affairs.
To all our colleagues and friends at the VA, mahalo for helping inspire our future physicians in Hawaiʻi and for serving our military veterans!
Happy Thanksgiving!