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Research Info for Learners

Explore Research Opportunities

Interested in getting involved in research during your training? We've compiled a list of some of our faculty researchers along with their areas of interest and current projects to help connect you with potential mentors.

If you would like to connect with one of our mentors listed below, please reach out to uhdomed@hawaii.edu.

JABSOM Medical Students: Learn how to earn academic credit through Research Electives and access Funding opportunities (up to $750 for case reports and $1,500 for other publications as 1st or 2nd author).


Research Mentor

Specialty

Topics of Interest

Welcome Advisees

Jared Acoba, MD

 Hematology/Oncology
  • Various Hematology/ Oncology topics
 Medical Students and Residents
Steven Azuma, MD Cardiology
  • Various Cardiology topics
 Medical Students and Residents
Giselle Baquero, MD

Cardiology
  • Achieving good outcomes in small volume programs (quality research)
  • Case reports
 Residents
Michiko Bruno, MD

Neurology
  • Predictors of skull density ratio (SDR) in focused ultrasound treatment for essential tremor and tremor-predominant Parkinson’s disease: A retrospective chart review of >50 procedures and ~80 patient screenings
 Medical Students and Residents
Dominic Chow, MD, PhD General Medicine
  • Cardiometabolic complications of HIV and Post Acute Sequalae of SARS-Cov2 infection (long covid)
 Residents
Ryotaro Kato, MD Critical Care Medicine
  • Global Health
  • Comparative Health
  • Japanese Healthcare
  • Health Services Research
  • Patient Safety
  • Risk Management
 Medical Students and Residents
Scott Kuwada, MD Gastroenterology
  • GI Malignancies
  • Fatty Liver Disease
 Medical Students and Residents
Jordan Lee, MD Pulmonary/Critical Care
  • Non-tuberculous mycobacterium (NTM) prevalence
  • NTM biodiversity in Hawaii and different geologically active/disrupted zones (Kilauea volcano, Lahaina wildfire, Kona/Hilo)
  • Ethnic disparities of NTM lung disease and bronchiectasis in Hawaii
 Medical Students and Residents 
Kore Liow, MD  Neurology
  • The BRAIN (Bridging Research and Innovation in Neuroscience) Scholar resident and medical student research program is part of the UH JABSOM MD5 MED 599 Neuroscience Research Course. UH medical students may sign up for elective credit while working at BRAIN in MD5 MED 599 Neuroscience research credit.
  • Read more here.
 Medical Students and Residents
Brent Matsuda, MD Pulmonary/Critical Care
  • Various Pulmonary/Critical Care topics
 Medical Students and Residents
Francisco Mercado Jr., MD Geriatrics
  • Local geriatrician's perspective of a high-quality hospital discharge summary.
  • GLP1-RA and its neuroprotective benefits in hospital delirium - a retrospective study
  • GLP1-RA and its Frailty outcome benefits.
  • Umbrella Review (systematic review or meta-analysis) on Elderly UTI and Neuropsychiatric presentation (delirium)
  • Benefits of anti-psychotics and BZD on Terminal delirium - systematic review or meta-analysis
  • Umbrella review on role of Phenobarbital in Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome
  • Landscape of Malpractice cases in Hawaii since 1980.
  • Bedside Teaching attending rounds - perception from interns/medical students/residents: a burden or a learning opportunity?
 Medical Students and Residents
J. Doug Miles, MD Neurology Medical Students and Residents
Jacob Shreve, MD Hematology/ Oncology
  • Artificial intelligence for clinically relevant medical decision
  • Deep learning for medical imaging (e.g., PET/CT interpretation, tumor segmentation)
  • Radiomics feature extraction
  • Multimodal machine learning in cancer care
  • Large language models for semi-automated database creation
  • Clinical trial matching using large language models
 Medical Students and Residents
Michelle Tallquist, PhD  Cardiology
  • Translational research using clinical samples
  • Collaborative opportunities in clinical data and sample analysis
 Medical Students and Residents
Philip Verhoef, MD, PhD Pulmonary/Critical Care
  • Impact of race/ethnicity on infectious disease and sepsis outcomes using EHR data
  • mRNA expression profiling in patients with bacteremia
  • Opportunities for students with statistical programming experience
 Medical Students

Research Electives

For Medical Students

Medical students can earn elective credit through two courses designed to support research with Internal Medicine faculty:

1. MED 599 – Directed Research

Open to all medical students, this course allows for mentored research experiences with Department of Medicine faculty.

2. MED 545R – Research in Internal Medicine

Available to MS4s only, this elective offers credit for substantial research involvement. Credit may be given for full-time research for 4 to 12 weeks (one week credit is equivalent to approximately 40 hours of research work).

To learn more about JABSOM-wide opportunities, visit the JABSOM Research Interest Group (JRIG).

Funding

For Medical Students

As publishing fees for peer-reviewed manuscripts can be costly, a JABSOM Student Publications Fund was created to assist both medical and graduate students in sharing their JABSOM generated research findings by supporting publication efforts.  To ensure many students can be supported through this fund, applications are reviewed on a quarterly basis.

The maximum amount of funding available per student for peer-reviewed publications is:  case report - $750; other research - $1,500.  Please note the year of application is defined by the date of the invoice from the journal.

Click the corresponding link for more information on the Student Publications Fund, along with more Services & Resources.