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Seiji Yamada, MD, MPH

yamada-seijiSeiji Yamada, MD, MPH
DFMCH Professor & Director of Medical Student Education
Email: seiji@hawaii.edu

Education
Undergraduate: Harvard University, BA - Physics
Graduate School: University of Hawaiʻi School of Public Health
Medical School: University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago, MD
Residency Training: Cook County Hospital Department of Family Practice, Family Practice Residency & Faculty Development Traineeship

Clinical & Academic Roles

Medical Student Role
  • DFMCH Director of Medical Student Education
  • MS3 Clerkship Continuity Clinic Preceptor
  • Social Justice in Health Course Faculty Advisor
  • Dean's Certificate of Social Justice Advisor
  • Student Interest Group Advisor: Partnership for Social Justice & Global Health Interest Group
  • Mentorship & Career Advising
  • Research Mentor
Residency Role
  • Resident Continuity Clinic Preceptor
  • Research Mentor
  • Didactic Lecturer
  • Resident Wellness

Research

Research Interests
  • Social Medicine
  • Public Health
  • Health Disparities
  • Medical Education

Publications

For a complete listing, click here.

  1. McElfish PA, Purvis RS, Riklon S, Yamada S. Compact of Free Association Migrants and Health Insurance Policies: Barriers and Solutions to Improve Health Equity. Inquiry. 2019;56:46958019894784. doi:10.1177/0046958019894784
  2. Shek D, Yamada S. Health care for Micronesians and constitutional rights. Hawaiʻi Med J. 2011;70(11 Suppl 2):4‐8.
  3. McElfish PA, Hallgren E, Yamada S. Effect of US health policies on health care access for Marshallese migrants. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(4):637‐643. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302452
  4. Hagiwara MK, Yamada S, Tanaka W, Ostrowski DM. Litigation and Community Advocacy to Ensure Health Access for Micronesian Migrants in Hawai’i. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2015;26(2 Suppl):137‐145. doi:10.1353/hpu.2015.0065
  5. Inada MK, Braun KL, Mwarike P, et al. Chuukese community experiences of racial discrimination and other barriers to healthcare: Perspectives from community members and providers. Soc Med (Soc Med Publ Group). 2019;12(1):3‐13.
  6. Witten NA, Kobayashi Y, Yamada S. Medical School Hotline: University of Hawai’i John A. Burns School of Medicine Medical Students Assist in Tuberculosis Control in Micronesia. Hawaiʻi J Med Public Health. 2017;76(5):133‐134.
  7. Yamada S, Riklon S, Maskarinec GG. Ethical Responsibility for the Social Production of Tuberculosis. J Bioeth Inq. 2016;13(1):57‐64. doi:10.1007/s11673-015-9681-1
  8. Hagiwara M, Juarez DT, Yamada S, Miyamura J, Sentell T. Inpatient Hospitalization Costs: A Comparative Study of Micronesians, Native Hawaiians, Japanese, and Whites in Hawai’i. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2015;13(1):ijerph13010029. Published 2015 Dec 22. doi:10.3390/ijerph13010029
  9. Hagiwara MK, Miyamura J, Yamada S, Sentell T. Younger and Sicker: Comparing Micronesians to Other Ethnicities in Hawaiʻi. Am J Public Health. 2016;106(3):485‐491. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302921
  10. Hagiwara MK, Yamada S, Tanaka W, Ostrowski DM. Litigation and Community Advocacy to Ensure Health Access for Micronesian Migrants in Hawai’i. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 2015;26(2 Suppl):137‐145. doi:10.1353/hpu.2015.0065
  11. McElfish PA, Hallgren E, Yamada S. Effect of US health policies on health care access for Marshallese migrants. Am J Public Health. 2015;105(4):637‐643. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.302452
  12. Yamada S, Galat A. Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan and climate justice. Disaster Med Public Health Prep. 2014;8(5):432‐435. doi:10.1017/dmp.2014.97
  13. Yamada S. Latin American social medicine and global social medicine. Am J Public Health. 2003;93(12):1994‐1996. doi:10.2105/ajph.93.12.1994
  14. Palafox NA, Yamada S, Ou AC, Minami JS, Johnson DB, Katz AR. Cancer in Micronesia. Pac Health Dialog. 2004;11(2):78‐83.
  15. Marshall CS, Yamada S, Inada MK. Using problem-based learning for pandemic preparedness. Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 2008;24(3 Suppl):S39‐S45. doi:10.1016/s1607-551x(08)70093-7
  16. Yamada S. The physician’s role in health and social justice. Hawaiʻi Med J. 2009;68(10):256‐257.
  17. Ambrose AJ, Arakawa RY, Greidanus BD, et al. Geographical maldistribution of native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander physicians in Hawai’i. Hawaiʻi J Med Public Health. 2012;71(4 Suppl 1):13‐20.
  18. Ambrose AJ, Andaya JM, Yamada S, Maskarinec GG. Social justice in medical education: strengths and challenges of a student-driven social justice curriculum. Hawaiʻi J Med Public Health. 2014;73(8):244‐250.
  19. Yamada S, Gunatilake RP, Roytman TM, Gunatilake S, Fernando T, Fernando L. The Sri Lanka tsunami experience. Disaster Manag Response. 2006;4(2):38‐48. doi:10.1016/j.dmr.2006.01.001
  20. Yamada S, Durand AM, Chen TH, Maskarinec GG. Interdisciplinary problem-based learning as a method to prepare Micronesia for public health emergencies. Pac Health Dialog. 2007;14(1):98‐102.
  21. Saunders A, Schiff T, Rieth K, Yamada S, Maskarinec GG, Riklon S. Health as a human right: who is eligible?. Hawaii Med J. 2010;69(6 Suppl 3):4‐6.
  22. Yamada S. Academic medicine should start at home. Acad Med. 2009;84(11):1490. doi:10.1097/ACM.0b013e3181baa1f2
  23. Katz AR, Palafox NA, Johnson DB, Yamada S, Ou AC, Minami JS. Cancer epidemiology in the freely associated U.S. Pacific Island jurisdictions: challenges and methodologic issues. Pac Health Dialog. 2004;11(2):84‐87.
  24. Withy KM, Yamada S, Dever G, Veehala D, Moore N, Shomaker TS. Community outreach, training, and research: the Hawai’i/Pacific Basin area Health Education Center of the University of Hawai’i, John A. Burns SChool of Medicine. Hawaiʻi Med J. 2006;65(2):46‐49.
  25. Yamada S, Fawzi MC, Maskarinec GG, Farmer PE. Casualties: narrative and images of the war on Iraq. Int J Health Serv. 2006;36(2):401‐415. doi:10.2190/6PXW-LQ3B-DWN6-XD97
  26. Slingsby BT, Yamada S, Greene G. A model of learning clinical reasoning at a US-based workshop: interactive reasoning. Med Sci Monit. 2010;16(2):SR16‐SR20.
  27. Barnes SS, Small CR, Lauilefue TA, Bennett J, Yamada S. Alcohol consumption and gender in rural Samoa. Subst Abuse Rehabil. 2010;1:1‐4. Published 2010 Nov 10. doi:10.2147/SAR.S14755
  28. Yamada S, Greene G, Bauman K, Maskarinec G. A biopsychosocial approach to finding common ground in the clinical encounter. Acad Med. 2000;75(6):643‐648. doi:10.1097/00001888-200006000-00017
  29. Yamada S, Withy KM, Ramirez V, Lindberg M. The effect of community-based, interdisciplinary training on the careers of physicians. J Interprof Care. 2005;19(2):171‐172. doi:10.1080/13561820500081109
  30. Yamada S, Palafox N. On the biopsychosocial model: the example of political economic causes of diabetes in the Marshall Islands. Fam Med. 2001;33(9):702‐704.
  31. Palafox NA, Buenconsejo-Lum L, Ka’ano’i M, Yamada S. Cultural competence: a proposal for physicians reaching out to Native Hawaiian patients. Pac Health Dialog. 2001;8(2):388‐392.
  32. Yamada S, Maskarinec G, Greene G. Cross-cultural ethics and the moral development of physicians: lessons from Kurosawa’s Ikiru. Fam Med. 2003;35(3):167‐169.
  33. Yamada S. Cancer, reproductive abnormalities, and diabetes in Micronesia: the effect of nuclear testing. Pac Health Dialog. 2004;11(2):216‐221.
  34. AhChing LP, Sapolu M, Samifua M, Yamada S. Attitudes regarding tuberculosis among Samoans. Pac Health Dialog. 2001;8(1):15‐19.
  35. Yamada S, Maskarinec G. Strengthening PBL through a discursive practices approach to case-writing. Educ Health (Abingdon). 2004;17(1):85‐92. doi:10.1080/13576280310001656150
  36. Withy K, Andaya JM, Mikami JS, Yamada S. Assessing health disparities in rural Hawaiʻi using the Hoshin facilitation method. J Rural Health. 2007;23(1):84‐88. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0361.2006.00072.x
  37. Yamada S, Maskarinec GG, Greene GA, Bauman KA. Family narratives, culture, and patient-centered medicine. Fam Med. 2003;35(4):279‐283.
  38. Withy KM, Berry SP, Lee M, Yamada S. Resources for providers to counsel patients about healthy lifestyles. Hawaiʻi Med J. 2005;64(7):180‐183.
  39. Yamada S, Caballero J, Matsunaga DS, Agustin G, Magana M. Attitudes regarding tuberculosis in immigrants from the Philippines to the United States. Fam Med. 1999;31(7):477‐482.
  40. Yamada S, Dodd A, Soe T, Chen TH, Bauman K. Diabetes mellitus prevalence in out-patient Marshallese adults on Ebeye Island, Republic of the Marshall Islands. Hawaiʻi Med J. 2004;63(2):45‐51.
  41. Niheu K, Turbin LM, Yamada S. The impact of the military presence in Hawai’i on the health of Na Kănaka Maoli. Pac Health Dialog. 2007;14(1):205‐212.
Book & Book Chapters
  • History, Theory, and Praxis in Pacific Islands Health. In A-E Birn, T Brown, eds. Comrades in Health: U.S. Health Internationalists, Abroad and at Home. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013.
  • Chapter: Problem-based Learning in Hawaiʻi (in Japanese, tr. Saito N). Problem-based Learning in Hawaii (in Japanese, tr. Saito N). Publisher: Yodosha Co. Ltd.Editors: Tokuda Y, Kishimoto M, Greene G
  • Chapter: Cholera in the Marshall Islands: Ecology, Globalization, and Empire. Global Public Health in the Pacific. Publisher: Globalization Research Center. Editors: Neubauer R, Rae J.
  • Chapter: Militarism and the Social Production of Disease. Sickness and Wealth. Publisher: South End. PressEditors: M Fort, MA Mercer, O Gish.
  • Chapter: Tuberculosis. Saunders Manual of Medical PracticeEdition: 2nd Ed. Publisher: W. B. Saunders. Co.Editors: Rakel RE.
Awards
  • 2018 Teaching Award, University of Hawaiʻi Family Medicine Residency Program
Other Interests
  • Community health
  • Access to health care for the underserved
  • Cross-cultural health
  • Disaster relief
  • Climate change
  • Hepatitis B
  • Tuberculosis
  • Hansen's Disease
Prior Experience
  • Worked in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands after residency and practiced full-spectrum Family Medicine
  • Previously worked at various community health centers around Hawaiʻi, including Kōkua Kalihi Valley and Kalihi Palama Health Center