School of Medicine

Special Programs

Hawai‘i/Pacific Basin Area Health Education Center (AHEC)

AHEC supports travel and housing costs for students to perform training in rural areas (neighbor islands, U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands) during all years of school, as well as supports distance learning activities (video teleconferencing), two community based interdisciplinary training programs (the programs formerly called Ke Ola), and assists with travel for the Quentin Burdick Rural Interdisciplinary Training Program. AHEC also performs ongoing research in which students are invited to participate. The research areas include health workforce needs in the Pacific, factors influential in increasing pursuit of health science careers, and the health needs of rural and underserved communities including homeless individuals and families.

Other AHEC activities include recruitment to health science careers for students of all ages, as well as assistance with applications, finding financial support, research experiences and community partnerships, as well as providing continuing education, community health education and expanding community capacity to create programs to improve health.

AHEC is a federally funded program through the Health Resources and Services Administration. The federal mandate is to improve the diversity, distribution and quality of the health professions workforce. The mission of AHEC: To improve the health of the underserved through education. Activities focus on five primary areas: (1) Health education and recruitment to health professions for students across the state from kindergarten through college; (2) Educating health professions students in rural and underserved areas, often in interdisciplinary teams; (3) Recruitment, retention and continuing education of practicing health professionals in medically underserved areas; (4) Providing community based and community driven health education in over a dozen community learning centers across the state; and (5) Providing video connectivity for health education, communication, and other health care services to rural and underserved areas across the state. Other organizations administered in partnership with AHEC include the NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program and the Hawai‘i Health Education Training Center for Community Health Workers and Physician Assistants.

Overseas Programs

The school plays an extensive training role at locations outside Hawai‘i and expects that its involvement in the Pacific and Asia will continue. In the scattered islands of Micronesia, the school has trained medical officers (MOs) and physician assistants to bring primary care to a widely dispersed population. The curricula were relevant to the clinical and community health needs of the Pacific Basin. Graduates of the MO program received a Diploma in Community Health, Medicine, and Surgery. Training of other health professionals in the Pacific Basin area continues. On Okinawa, the school conducts a residency training program for graduates of Japanese medical schools. This program is financed by the Okinawa prefectural government. The school conducts a medical student exchange program with medical schools and hospitals in Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Japan.

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