SCI physician
VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
During my training, I spent two years as a research fellow in the division of General Internal Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA. I also completed a clinical geriatrics fellowship at Harvard to solidify my clinical knowledge of geriatric medicine while continuing to work on my research.
As the Spinal Cord Injury & Disorders (SCI&D) Physician at VA Pacific Islands Health Care System in Honolulu, HI, I have spent the last 15+ years developing a program to provide outstanding and comprehensive life-long healthcare for our SCI&D veterans. My activities have included clinical program development and evaluation, building an exceptional program for Veterans with SCI&D in Hawaii and across the Pacific. Utilizing competitively acquired Office of Rural Health funds for 12+ years, I have been able to expand access to our specialized SCI&D services to Veterans across the Hawaiian Islands and the Pacific (including Guam, Saipan, Rota, and American Samoa).
Over the last 3+ years, I have helped implement the Age-Friendly Health System framework within my SCI&D Program and across our facility at VA Pacific Islands Health Care System. We were the first VA SCI&D Program in the country to receive the AFHS – Participant and AFHS – Committed to Care Excellence designations, and the first program to receive this designation on behalf of our facility. Due to my work in this area, I was invited to apply for the American Hospital Association (AHA) Next Generation Leaders Fellowship and was awarded an AFHS scholarship. My project in this area has been to spread AFHS principles across the entire VA SCI&D System of Care. I have been working closely with the National VA AFHS Workgroup as well as the National VA SCI&D Program Office on this project.
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