The University of Hawai’i Board of Regents is requesting $3,724,600 to expand Hawai’i’s healthcare workforce and improve access to care across the islands. The Health Science and Healthcare Interdisciplinary Workforce Initiative would add 18.5 full-time equivalent clinician and faculty positions across five health sciences units to address severe shortages in high-need medical fields including cancer, neurology, dementia, and behavioral health integration and addiction medicine. According to UH President Wendy Hensel, “UH has a kuleana to the people and ‘āina of Hawai’i, and that responsibility drives us to focus on solutions that make a real difference in our communities.”
The coordinated hire targets three high-priority health areas: Cancer ($1,674,400; 6.35 FTE) to establish an accredited hematology-oncology fellowship and expand clinical research capacity; Neurology and Dementia ($1,162,200; 7.40 FTE) to create an accredited neurology residency program and expand the Kūpuna Workforce Innovation Hub; and Behavioral Health Integration and Addiction Medicine ($888,000; 4.75 FTE) to expand the Education and Research Center of Addiction Medicine and enhance telehealth services. The initiative spans five UH units: John A. Burns School of Medicine, the UH Cancer Center, the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, the Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health, and the UH Hilo Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy.
The positions would add both clinician faculty who train future healthcare providers and deliver direct patient care in rural and underserved communities. Beyond direct patient care, the initiative would support statewide continuing education in dementia care and behavioral health–primary care integration. UH Vice President for Budget and Finance Luis Salaveria described the request as purposefully limited to “major strategic items that are time-sensitive and provide essential benefits to both the state and the university,” given slowing state revenue growth.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2026/01/22/healthcare-workforce-initiative/