In retrospect, the COVID-19 pandemic presented one of the most challenging times for the University of Hawaii at Manoa John A. Burns School of Medicine but made its mission more pressing.

It became clear that doctors need to work collaboratively as a team with other health care professionals and that this will be necessary going forward in the 21st century, according to Dr. Jerris Hedges, former dean of JABSOM.

Hedges, 73, officially retired Wednesday after 15 years as dean. Dr. Lee Buenconsejo-Lum, formerly JABSOM’s associate dean for academic affairs, is serving as interim dean.

“I feel good about where the school is at this point and the things we’ve been able to accomplish,” he told the Honolulu Star-­Advertiser. “Despite the pandemic, we kept innovating, evolving and accomplishing things very similar to how we functioned and operated prior to that. It’s a credit to the team I’ve been fortunate to recruit.”

Enrollment at the medical school has grown, with a current enrollment of 320. The class size grew to 77 from about 62 graduating medical students per year.

The goal, he said, is to bring the class size up to 100 or more per year to help with the ongoing doctor shortage and growing needs on neighbor isles. More than 1,000 students will have graduated from JABSOM under Hedges’ tenure.

“I am, of course, incredibly proud of our medical students who are both in the process of becoming doctors now and those we’ve helped through the process,” he said.

He is also proud to see JABSOM’s ranking in U.S. News &World Report rise during his tenure.

Hedges recalls being ranked No. 102 out of about 110 medical schools when he started 15 years ago. He said JABSOM, a small and relatively new school that opened in 1965, had to compete against well-established East Coast institutions with name recognition.

But for the past few years, JABSOM has consistently been ranked among the top 25 medical schools for the training of primary care doctors. This year JABSOM was ranked No. 24 among more than 100.

“What the good rankings do is reassure the students from Hawaii they don’t have to leave the state,” he said. “Or if they’ve gone out of state for their undergraduate work, they can come back and get a solid education and good start for a practice here in Hawaii. It’s just really important for them to know that so we can retain the best in Hawaii for the medical school.”

Nearly 90% of JABSOM medical students are kamaaina, according to the school’s fact sheet. Approximately half of all practicing physicians in Hawaii are JABSOM graduates or faculty members.

JABSOM also offers specialized residency training programs and degrees in medical technology and biomedical sciences.

The ranking is important, given that the state’s ongoing doctor shortage worsened during the pandemic as many physicians, burned out or frustrated, retired early or left the profession.

The state is short about 800 doctors, according to the latest Hawaii Physician Workforce Report.

Hedges said besides expanding enrollment and scholarships and starting satellite programs on neighbor islands, solving the doctor shortage is a greater, statewide economic challenge.

The underlying issue is the need to bring the pay scale up — not just for doctors and nurses, but for all workers in Hawaii in respect to the cost of living.

“That’s a bigger challenge,” he said. “In order for us to get the compensation up, especially for health professionals so that it’s competitive with the continent, we have to have a stronger overall economy here in Hawaii.”

Some solutions might include developing a knowledge sector to export out of state, whether it be in fields like oceanography, engineering or education.

“The future health of Hawaii depends on those who train in Hawaii, especially those who have grown up in Hawaii, and will take us to that next level,” he said in a news release, “and I’m really looking forward to seeing that.”

Hedges said one of his proudest accomplishments was restructuring the medical school’s nonprofit faculty practice group, known as University Health Partners of Hawaii.

Through University Health Partners, JABSOM faculty and students work in partnership with The Queen’s Health Systems, Hawaii Pacific Health and others to provide clinical care and services.

The pandemic presented one of the greatest challenges to the medical school but also led to great developments and partnerships.

It was a stressful and uncertain time, according to Hedges, with students having to learn medicine via Zoom or telehealth rather than in active, in-person group sessions or hands-on work with patients in clinical settings.

But the medical school forged ahead, brought students back as soon as COVID-19 vaccines were available — and even played a role in testing underrepresented communities in the state.

It was during these challenges that it became clear that doctors need to work as a team with a network of nurses, pharmacists, social workers and others to address public health issues.

Annually, JABSOM secures about $42 million in funding, mostly for research, from the National Institutes of Health.

In retirement, Hedges will continue to guide research for OLA Hawaii, a five-year, NIH-funded project on health disparities in the state. While he plans to travel, he considers Hawaii home and will stay here.

Interim Dean Buenconsejo-­Lum, a family physician, is a Leilehua High School graduate born and raised on Oahu.

She graduated from JABSOM in 1994 and joined the faculty as a clinical teaching assistant in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health after earning a bachelor’s from Stanford University.

“I chose to come back home for medical school to take care of my community,” she said, “so I’m just really privileged to have this opportunity.”

She has been associate dean of academic affairs since 2019 and was lead adviser on the COVID-19 pandemic response for UH. If selected as dean, she would be the first female, Filipino and JABSOM graduate to hold the position.

The UH Board of Regents is expected to begin a national search soon and to select a new dean by the end of this year.