During the summer of 2014, the U.S. Veterans Affairs Rural Heath Training and Education Initiative (RHTI) in partnership with the Hawaii/Pacific Basin Area Heath Education Center (AHEC), and the Office of Public Health Studies at University of Hawaii at Manoa, developed and implemented an interdisciplinary pain management project at the Guam VA Community Based Outreach Clinic. Over the course of two months, RHTI trainees, which included students from public health, medical school, and nursing, designed and facilitated weekly sessions that taught veterans about a multimodal approach to coping with chronic pain and equipped them with skills to address and reduce their pain. This project involved participation from primary care, mental health, and physical therapy clinicians and required a well coordinated effort to bring 31 patients to participate in the weekly sessions. At the end of the two months, the project was evaluated. 24 participants found the sessions to be helpful and were determined to apply a multimodal approach for managing their chronic pain.

During the same summer of 2014, Kyorin University Hospital in partnership with Office of Public Health at University of Hawaii conducted a policy analysis report regarding improvement of patient acceptance into the ER of Kyorin University Hospital in Tokyo, Japan. The policy analysis was assessed based on comparison of EMS and ER systems and organization between Tokyo and the U.S. as well as data collected by the hospital regarding patient refusal rate into ER. Ride-alongs with the Tokyo Fire Department ambulance was also conducted to better understand the EMS system in Tokyo and to address issues regarding repeated rejection of patients by hospitals. The final report was presented to various stakeholders within Kyorin University Hospital. This project also established a Memorandum of Understanding between University of Hawaii Office of Public Health and Kyorin University for future practicum prospects.