University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine
Located on the island of Oʻahu, the University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) is Hawaiʻi’s only medical school. It serves a state whose geography, cultural diversity, and unique health care needs shape its approach to medical education, research, and clinical care. At JABSOM, community engagement is not a simple outreach endeavor; it is embedded within the institution’s mission, fostering partnerships in which communities are the recipients of the work and active collaborators.
That partnership begins with medical education. All first-year students participate in a longitudinal community health course developed in collaboration with local organizations. In addition, JABSOM’s Moku — six longitudinal learning communities designed to enhance learning through team skill development and exploration of care management — reflect the traditional districts of Oʻahu and connect students with community advisors who help guide culturally grounded service, advocacy, and learning experiences. Together, these programs provide students with sustained opportunities to understand health care within the social, cultural, and historical contexts of the communities they serve.
The Hawaiʻi Homeless Outreach and Medical Education (HOME) Project further exemplifies this model. This student-run, faculty-supervised program delivers care to individuals experiencing homelessness through fixed-site, shelter-based, and mobile clinics. All JABSOM students participate in rotations through the Hawaiʻi HOME Project, where patients, shelter leaders, outreach teams, government agencies, and health care professionals help identify priorities, refine services, and determine where care is most needed. When catastrophic flooding disrupted access to care on Oʻahu’s North Shore in March 2026, for instance, these established partnerships enabled JABSOM to collaborate with the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health and Honolulu Community Outreach Response and Engagement program to establish a pop-up clinic in Waialua.
JABSOM also demonstrates how community engagement can strengthen Hawaiʻi’s physician workforce and expand access to care across the state. Its Rural Health Program provides experiential learning opportunities throughout all four years of medical school on Kauaʻi, Maui, Lānaʻi, and the Big Island, preparing students who are interested in serving communities where physician shortages and barriers to care are most pronounced. These experiences foster meaningful relationships with local communities and help learners develop a deeper understanding of the unique health needs of rural Hawai’i.
Community partnership is equally central to JABSOM’s research mission. Since 2005, the PILI ʻOhana Project (Partnerships to Improve Lifestyle Interventions) has engaged Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander organizations as collaborators and co-investigators in addressing chronic disease and health disparities. Through initiatives like its National Institutes of Health-supported health disparities research center, Ola HAWAII (Heath And Wellness Achieved by Impacting Inequalities), JABSOM has translated community-engaged research into measurable public health impact. The Pacific Against Cervical Cancer (PACe) Project, for example, expanded access to cervical cancer screening and early detection services, reaching 1,600 women through community-based initiatives across Micronesia and the Pacific region. Together, these and other initiatives demonstrate how JABSOM partners with communities to co-create research, build local capacity, and find solutions that address community-defined priorities.
What distinguishes JABSOM is not simply the breadth of these efforts, but the way they are integrated across the institution: Community priorities influence what students learn, where care is delivered, which research questions are pursued, and how the school prepares Hawaiʻi’s future health care workforce. By combining the resources of academic medicine with the knowledge, culture, and expertise of Hawaiʻi’s communities, JABSOM has built a model of community engagement that is deeply rooted in place, sustained through trusted relationships, and woven throughout its institutional mission.