(BIVN) – A highly anticipated physician assistant program is getting under way on Hawaiʻi Island.

MEDEX Hawaiʻi provided video recorded on Saturday, and shared this news release:

In its ongoing mission of expanding access to healthcare and improving medical care for the underserved in Hawaii, the MEDEX Northwest Physician Assistant Program interviewed and selected itʻs inaugural class for the MEDEX Hawaii Campus, Saturday Jan 18th at the Courtyard King Kamehameha Hotel in Kailua-Kona. These new candidates of MEDEX Hawaii class #1 will start studies in March towards a Masters of Clinical Health Services degree. Study begins with an online course followed by classroom activities at the new campus in South Kona September 2020.

While final approval of the Hawaii campus is subject to approval by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA), all Hawaii applicants will be asked to select a second campus location (Seattle, or Tacoma, WA). If the Hawaii expansion is not available for the 2020 entering cohort, those students will be admitted to their second campus preference.

The MEDEX Selection process is competitive. MEDEX invited 38 potential candidates Saturday to interview on the Big Island. The MEDEX faculty specifically selected 16-18 candidates with strong connections to Hawaii, including those native to the state. By focusing on long-term residents of the Hawaiian Islands, the program hopes to ensure that MEDEX Hawaii is able to retain these PA graduates and add them to the badly needed healthcare workforce here in the state.

“The Selection Conference is one of the final steps towards making MEDEX Hawaii a reality” says Program Director, Terry Scott MPA, PA-C, DFAAPA. “The University of Washington and the MEDEX Program have invested an enormous amount of energy and resources in bringing this first Physician Assistant program to the state.” “We are fully committed to the people of Hawaii and will ensure that our students have all that they need to be successful in the classroom and during their clinical training.”

Dr. Misbah Keen, MD, MBI, MPH Executive Vice Chair of Family Medicine states, “There continues to be unparalleled enthusiasm for MEDEX Hawaii in the entire department and we all are looking at additional ways the larger University might be able to help meet the healthcare workforce needs of the state of Hawaii.”

Applicants who are interested in attending MEDEX Hawaii in 2021 as part of class #2, are required to submit both a CASPA and a MEDEX Supplemental application beginning May 1st. Requiements for MEDEX Hawaii are the same for other mainland campuses and can be found at [this website]. Applications will be accepted through September 1st, 2020.

Questions about the MEDEX Program in Hawaii can be directed to mxhawaii@uw.edu.

Today, PAs are trained on the medical model, completing a program that’s two-thirds that of medical school. Unlike physicians, they aren’t required to undertake an internship or residency. Certified PAs, noted as PA-C, can provide 80 percent of the services typically covered by a family physician, according to the AAPA.

Operational since 1969, MEDEX Northwest was one of the founding organizations behind the contemporary physician assistant profession and is the largest civilian PA educator in the U.S. Over 2,600 have graduated from its four campus sites since Dr. Richard A. Smith founded the program on the University of Washington campus in Seattle.

If you would like more information about MEDEX in Hawaii, please call Betty Stewart at (206) 473-2369 or email mxhawaii@uw.edu.