{"id":151012,"date":"2021-11-01T11:28:57","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T21:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=151012"},"modified":"2024-03-15T22:28:56","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T08:28:56","slug":"pbrc-christina-higa-honored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/01\/pbrc-christina-higa-honored\/","title":{"rendered":"National recognition for Pacific Basin Telehealth Resource Center co-director"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><figure id=\"attachment_151013\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151013\" style=\"width: 676px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/manoa-higa-christina-acap-award.jpeg\" alt=\"christina higa holding up award\" width=\"676\" height=\"383\" class=\"size-full wp-image-151013\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/manoa-higa-christina-acap-award.jpeg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/manoa-higa-christina-acap-award-300x170.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/manoa-higa-christina-acap-award-130x74.jpeg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151013\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Christina Higa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For the past 11 years, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbtrc.org\/\">Pacific Basin Telehealth Resource Center<\/a> (<abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr>) at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa has provided vital telehealth assistance to meet the health needs of underserved populations throughout <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> and the Pacific.<\/p>\n<p><abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr>\u2019s outstanding work in advancing telehealth through education, training and strategic planning, has earned them and co-director <strong>Christina Higa<\/strong> the 16th annual Supporting the Safety Net Award from the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (<abbr>ACAP<\/abbr>). The national award, the first for a <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> community-based organization, was presented to Higa at the <abbr>ACAP<\/abbr> <abbr title=\"chief executive officer\">CEO<\/abbr> Summit in Washington, <abbr>D.C.<\/abbr> on October 28. Higa was also honored with a $1,000 donation to go toward the program\u2019s <abbr title=\"University of Hawaii\">UH<\/abbr> Foundation account.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Related <em><abbr>UH<\/abbr> News<\/em> story: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/04\/17\/uh-promotes-telehealth-since-2010\/\">Â鶹´«Ã½promotes the use of telehealth since 2010, April 17, 2020<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&ldquo;It is an honor to receive this award for <abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr> and <abbr>UH<\/abbr> as it highlights the strong partnerships and value of our <abbr>UH<\/abbr> faculty and programs in our communities,&rdquo; said Higa, a faculty member in the <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/socialsciences.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">College of Social Sciences<\/a>. &ldquo;I work with many individual champions who are very passionate and driven to make a difference, including my awesome team at <abbr>UH<\/abbr> Telecommunications and Social Informatics (<abbr>TASI<\/abbr>) Research Program and <abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr>.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr> serves the most underserved, rural and asset-limited populations, offering service to two million people spread across an ocean area slightly larger than the size of the continental <abbr>U.S.<\/abbr> The complex region has unique challenges to healthcare access including major geographic isolation and separation by ocean, a critical shortage of primary and specialty care, extremely high costs of travel and broadband, smaller populations and differing political and cultural environments.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;When the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare disparities that often complicate access to care, we watched telehealth fill critical gaps,&rdquo; said <abbr>ACAP<\/abbr> <abbr>CEO<\/abbr> Margaret A. Murray. &ldquo;In <abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr>\u2019s service area&#8212;where seeking care at any time might require travel by boat or plane&#8212;Ms. Higa and her team provide a vital service, [to work towards] ensuring that every person can access the care they need. We\u2019re thrilled to honor their tireless efforts.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<h2>AlohaCare nomination<\/h2>\n<p><abbr>ACAP<\/abbr> member plan <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alohacare.org\/\">AlohaCare<\/a> nominated <abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr> and Higa for the national award for their crucial role in helping to make telehealth services accessible and significantly improving telehealth access for its members with Medicaid and the providers who care for them.<\/p>\n<p>AlohaCare wrote, &ldquo;Ms. Higa is someone who has been told she can be too optimistic, but that just makes her dig deeper into the details to make things work. She says, &lsquo;I just want to make a difference and do the best I can to help people. That\u2019s what drives a lot of us, the desire to want to make the world a better place.&rsquo; And that is exactly what they\u2019re doing.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Mahalo to AlohaCare for the nomination and <abbr>ACAP<\/abbr> for the recognition of those who are dedicated to creating and supporting the safety net for people who need help,&rdquo; Higa added.<\/p>\n<h2>More on Higa<\/h2>\n<p>Higa has served as co-director of <abbr>PBTRC<\/abbr> in the College of Social Sciences Social Science Research Institute since 2014. She also serves as associate director of the <abbr>TASI<\/abbr> Research Program\/Pacific Health Informatics and Data Center. An alumna of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa, she earned her PhD in communication and information sciences, and her bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in communications.<\/p>\n<p>This recognition is an example of <abbr>UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa\u2019s goal of <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-2025-strategic-plan.pdf#page=25\">Excellence in Research: Advancing the Research and Creative Work Enterprise<\/a> (<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), one of four goals identified in the <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/manoa-2025-strategic-plan.pdf\">2015\u201325 Â鶹´«Ã½ <\/a>(<span class=\"small-text\"><abbr title=\"Portable Document Format\">PDF<\/abbr><\/span>), updated in December 2020. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christina Higa is honored with the 16th annual Supporting the Safety Net Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[301,598,1363,1428,319,9,1626],"class_list":["post-151012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-college-of-social-sciences","tag-faculty-recognition","tag-manoa-research","tag-telehealth","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-manoa","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151012"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151033,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151012\/revisions\/151033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}