The University of Washington is starting Hawaii’s first physician assistant training program at a time when the state is experiencing a severe shortage of doctors, particularly on the neighbor islands.

The UW School of Medicine’s MEDEX physician assistant program is investing up to $1 million to open a training center at the former Kaiser Permanente Clinic in Kailua-Kona.

Physician assistants, like nurse practitioners, commonly work with physicians, but can practice medicine and prescribe medications on their own. The school is recruiting up to 20 students preferably native to the islands for the 27-month program, which costs $81,000 for a Master of Clinical Health Services degree.

“What’s exciting for the state is MEDEX focuses on rural areas that are underserved. They also focus on trying to get individuals from that location … to come back and remain in the state to practice medicine,” said Dr. Scott Miscovich, whose primary care clinic is part of the rotation for existing Washington state students training in the program. “We’re short of doctors by almost 800 physicians. We’re losing ground. The shortage just keeps getting worse. It’s critical we have the opportunity for students from Hawaii to stay in Hawaii and return to the communities perhaps where they grew up.”

Sept. 1 is the deadline to apply.

Betty Stewart, director of the Hawaii campus and international development for the University of Washington’s MEDEX program, said the investment in the islands is critical since Hawaii is one of few states in the country that doesn’t have a school to train PAs.

The Hawaii expansion is subject to approval by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant. Hawaii applicants are asked to select a second campus location (Seattle or Tacoma). If the Hawaii expansion is delayed next year, students will be admitted to their second campus preference in the first year and complete the second year in the islands.

Interviews will be conducted on the Big Island in January, and students accepted into the program start online in March, then move to the Kona campus in September if approved.

“We believe it’s so important and that the need is so desperate to have more health care workers, especially on the Big Island, that we were willing to take the risk to do that,” Stewart said.

The program was founded by Hawaii resident Dr. Richard Smith, who died last year. He established MEDEX International in the 1970s and traveled throughout the Pacific Basin and the world, training locals to deliver basic health care.

Since 1969 MEDEX has graduated more than 2,600 students at the University of Washington campus in Seattle; Anchorage, Alaska; as well as Spokane and Tacoma, Wash.