The 10th Annual Suzanne Richmond-Crum Award was presented to John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) physician Dominic Chow on World AIDS Day, December 1, at the Lutheran Church of Honolulu. The Hawaiʻi State Department of Health said Chow was selected for his tremendous contributions to HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services in Hawaiʻi.
“For over 15 years, Dr. Chow has dedicated himself to taking care of individuals affected by HIV/AIDS,” said the Department of Health in a news release.
Chow is an HIV expert at the Clint Spencer Clinic, operated by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa medical school. It is a multi-specialty clinic focusing on the care of individuals with HIV and its complications, which now include diabetes, heart disease, dementia and cancer. The clinic has about 400 patients on Oʻahu and the neighbor islands. Some 3,000 people in Hawaiʻi live with HIV/AIDS. It is believed about 25 percent of them don’t even know they are carrying the virus.
“Our HIV clinic would not exist without Dr. Chow’s hard work,” said Cecilia Shikuma, director of the JABSOM Hawaiʻi Center for AIDS.
Chow also is a board member of The Life Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to preventing the spread of HIV and assisting those who are living with HIV and AIDS.
“Dr. Chow is an active participant in the training of medical students and medical residents and has served as a mentor to other students and junior researchers,” said JABSOM Dean Jerris R. Hedges. “He provides HIV expertise through the continuing education of Hawaiʻi’s practicing healthcare providers and is also an outstanding leader in the UH internal medicine and pediatric residency programs, receiving the University of Hawaiʻi Pediatric Residency Program Faculty Teaching Award in 2005.”
Read the UH Mānoa news release for more on Chow.
