Year 4 Pilot Projects

Year 4 – Ola HAWAII Pilot Projects


Rachel Burrage, Ph.D., M.S.W.

Assessing through Mauli Ola:  Instilling `Ike Hawaii into Integrated Care

Native Hawaiians have higher rates of mental health difficulties and lower rates of service use when compared with other ethnic groups in Hawaii, which may be in part due to disconnects between Native Hawaiian and dominant understandings of wellbeing.  The provision of appropriate mental health services for Native Hawaiians is complicated by the lack of culturally-grounded assessment measures.  At the same time, there is national interest in culturally-grounded, integrated healthcare.  The goal of this study is to improve mental health care for Native Hawaiians by better understanding how Native Hawaiian conceptualizations of wellbeing can be incorporated into the assessment process of integrated healthcare settings.


Paris Stowers, M.D.

Just World Beliefs and Views of Early Pregnancy Loss in Hawaii

Almost half of all individuals experiencing early pregnancy loss (EPL) report feelings of guilt. This study will evaluate how beliefs towards EPL relate to Just World Beliefs (JWB) among Hawaii residents and the healthcare providers who care for them.  This investigation will be the first to measure JWB as an underlying cause of disease-stigma, a known contributor to health disparities in a population that has been largely excluded from prior investigations of both EPL perceptions and JWB.  This objective complements existing research on disparities secondary to implicit biases in healthcare with the long-term goal of developing interventions to reduce these biases.


Juwon Park, Ph.D.

The effect of fibroblast ablation on airway remodeling and inflammation in murine asthma

The prevalence of asthma has been increasing in the U.S. since the 1980s. Although scientific advances have provided a better understanding of the mechanisms of asthma, translation to new therapies has been slow. In addition, current treatments for asthma reduce the symptoms and improve pulmonary function, but do not target tissue remodeling. Therefore, there is an urgent needed to develop new therapies that can reduce asthma progression. A deeper understanding of fibroblast and immune cell crosstalk and identification of novel anti-inflammatory targets will help to attenuate inflammation and airway remodeling. Also, this information will provide broaden future treatment options for patients with asthma.