Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health and Hospital Board, Inc. Program

Program Identity & Fit

WCCHC's Ho'okahua I Ke Ola Family Medicine Residency is a brand-new (first class matriculated July 2025), FQHC-based Teaching Health Center program embedded in Hawai'i's largest community health center, serving the medically underserved Wai'anae Coast, Kapolei, and Ewa communities. The 3-3-3 curriculum is built almost entirely around the health center's own clinic system (Nānākuli-based continuity clinic, school-based health sites, standalone ED in Māʻili) supplemented by inpatient, OB, and subspecialty rotations at Queen's Medical Center-affiliated hospitals, reflecting a true community-health-center training model rather than a hospital-centric one. There is no visible research infrastructure or fellowship pipeline; instead, the program's identity centers on producing culturally competent, holistic family physicians committed to serving vulnerable, multicultural, medically underserved populations, consistent with WCCHC's broader mission of healing, learning, and workforce development for its own community. As an inaugural, small (three-resident) program still building its track record, it appears to value applicants demonstrably oriented toward safety-net, primary-care practice rather than subspecialization or academic research.