Health-care
businesses, state
send 20 to Tokyo

The delegation hopes to
open doors there for Hawaii

Staff and wire reports

A 20-member delegation of Hawaii medical, health care, education and government professionals will visit Tokyo May 20-26 to examine the needs and the business practices of Japanese hospitals and health care firms.

"We're going to see how they take care of their health care systems and to learn and exchange ideas," said Dennis Ling, a business development official for the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The trip is being arranged by the department.

"It's not clinical," Ling said. "It deals with the business end of health care, with the administration and management."

The knowledge gained and contacts made may help Hawaii's health care community enter the Japan market as part of Gov. Ben Cayetano's vision of making Hawaii a health care center in the Pacific, Ling said.

Participants, who are paying their own way, include:

>> The Pacific Health Center, a proposed master-planned health care community in Central Oahu.
>> Pacific Telemedicine, a technology solutions provider for the health care industry.
>> Leeward Integrated Services, a long-term, intermediate and skilled nursing care center.
>> Integrated/Business Services, a consulting firm assisting health care firms in moving toward managed care.

The University of Hawaii's John A. Burns School of Medicine and College of Business Administration also will send delegates.

For more information on the mission or to receive a Directory of Hawaii's Medical Service Providers, call Ling at the Business Development and Marketing Division, 587-2755.

He also may be contacted via e-mail at dling@dbedt.hawaii.gov.