A trio of donors is aiming to tackle the physician shortage in an unusual way — they are picking up the entire tuition tab for nearly a third of the incoming class at the University of Hawaii Medical School.

The $3.7 million in scholarship funds announced Wednesday aim to help top-notch students at the John A. Burns School of Medicine afford to work in the islands, even in fields that are not the most lucrative.

“Hawaii tends to lose talented medical student applicants to mainland colleges, where they often get full scholarships,” philanthropists Barry and Virginia Weinman said in a joint statement. “While on the mainland, they may find spouses, have kids and may not be able to afford to return to Hawaii. Hopefully, these scholarships will enable these students to study at JABSOM and practice here in Hawaii.”

The Weinmans put up $2 million for the matching gift initiative, The Queen’s Health Systems donated $1 million and Hawaii Pacific Health contributed $740,000. Together, they will cover 23 students’ medical education.

Kara Termulo, who grew up in Wailuku, said she was thrilled just to get accepted by the medical school, where only 72 of 2,050 applicants were chosen this year. Only later did she find out that she and so many of her classmates wouldn’t have to pay a penny of tuition.

“It was such a generous scholarship!” she said. “My mind was blown. I was just thinking how different my life would be. It’s really overwhelming, their generosity.”

The scholarship recipients were selected based on merit as well as their desire to contribute to their home state. The grants cover the $37,000 in-state tuition for all four years, or $148,000. The average educational debt for JABSOM graduates is $169,000.

“These 23 future doctors will be free from worry over the expense of a medical education while they study,” Medical School Dean Jerris Hedges said Wednesday. “They will be able to graduate nearly debt free and then choose their medical specialty based on their passion to serve, not financial constraints.”

In 2006, the Weinmans donated $1 million in fellowships that funded 10 students’ medical education over a decade. One of those recipients, Dr. Bradlee Sako of the Class of 2010, wound up giving them a two-for-one return.

Sako met his future wife, Dr. Jenny Satterberg, during residency training in Washington, then brought her home with him. They both work in family medicine, Sako at Haleiwa Family Health Center and Satterberg at Hawaii Pacific Health’s Straub Clinic.

“The Weinmans’ support is the reason I was able to come back to Hawaii,” Sako said. “Like so many young doctors coming out of residency, she had enormous student loan debt. Factoring Hawaii’s cost of living, coming back home would have been impossible if we both were carrying large debts.”

Hawaii is short at least 650 to 700 physicians, with about half of those slots in primary care, Hedges said. As the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement, geriatric care and related specialties will grow in demand. But the physician workforce is also aging, with more than a quarter of Hawaii doctors already 60 or older, according to the JABSOM Physician Workforce Assessment.

“Investing in physician education and retention is investing in Hawaii’s future,” said Arthur Ushijima, president and CEO of The Queen’s Health Systems. “In order to provide the best kind of care for the people of Hawaii, we must be proactive in giving young talent in the medical field the opportunity to succeed and thrive, right here at home.”

The scholarship students, who are going through orientation this week, had a chance to meet and thank their benefactors at a reception at Oahu Country Club Wednesday evening.

“We are tremendously grateful to Barry and Virginia Weinman, and our partners at Hawaii Pacific Health and The Queen’s Health Systems for their multifaceted partnership over the years, and their investments in our collective future,” Hedges said. “Kudos to them for seeing the importance of this and setting the example.”

“Students make decisions both in terms of where they are going to practice and the type of practice that they are going to have based on their educational debt load,” Hedges said. “For us to remain competitive and retain our very best students, we are going to have to have more scholarships for them.”

“My goal is to continue to work with the community and see if we can’t build more of these scholarships, hopefully on an endowed basis, so that they’ll be there in perpetuity,” he said.

Sean Chan, who grew up in Makiki and graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, said the gift of free tuition certainly had an impact on him.

“When I got the scholarship I felt more compelled than ever to come back to Hawaii and help our our kamaaina and Hawaii’s population,” said Chan, a member of the medical school’s Class of 2022.

Termulo, a University of Portland graduate whose parents are physicians in Wailuku, is looking forward to following their footsteps in her home state.

“My parents’ patients gave back to us a lot,” she said. “They are like family. They really helped shape who I am. I feel very strongly about giving back to the community that helped me get here. I am so happy to be at JABSOM. I’m elated. There is no better place to be.”

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