Can the Hilo residency program still happen?
Dr. Jon Martell, one of the doctors who tried to start a Hilo-based medical residency program 14 years ago, said the current attempt for a residency program is far from over. “No one wants to put anything out there concrete while anything is possible,” Martell said. “I’m not going to say it’s going to make it, but it certainly has a better chance that the last one did.” The difference now, he said, is that Hilo Medical Center and The John A. Burns School of Medicine remain strongly behind the concept of a residency program in Hilo. He said the only hitch in the current program is the state’s financial crisis. Martell said Bucci is committed to establishing a residency program in Hilo. While it may appear that the clinic is taking the place of the medical residency program, Martell said that is not the case. A clinic is an essential step to bringing a medical residency program to fruition. The multidisciplinary approach to learning is not the new plan for the site, he said. It was alway
