(AGENPARL) - Roma, 20 Marzo 2026 -
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The nation’s first professorship in advanced gynecological surgery at a major academic institution was established last year at the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, expanding access to specialized care in Hawaiʻi.
Just months after arriving, Kimberly Kho is already advancing that effort. Kho joined JABSOM after building one of the nation’s leading programs in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Her work focuses on treating benign gynecologic diseases—noncancerous conditions that affect millions of women but can still be life-altering.
She is also helping train OBGYN residents in the diagnosis and treatment of conditions such as chronic pelvic pain, fibroids and endometriosis.
“These are benign diseases, meaning they’re not cancer,” Kho said. “But they can be completely debilitating.”
Addressing a critical gap in care
Conditions such as uterine fibroids and endometriosis are common and often severe. Fibroids affect an estimated 70 to 80% of women with a uterus, while endometriosis impacts about one in nine women.
For many patients in Hawaiʻi, access to specialized treatment has historically been limited, with some traveling to the mainland for advanced care.
“People were leaving the state to seek this kind of care or being presented with treatment options that didn’t honor their values, including more radical surgeries that would lead to loss of fertility,” Kho said. “Now we’re building the ability to provide those advanced, complex services here.”
Kho, who brings nearly two decades of experience, is working to build a multidisciplinary program that improves collaboration and expands awareness of these often misunderstood conditions.
“We have to educate our community, our patients and other healthcare providers,” she said.
Kho said Hawaiʻi already has the talent and expertise needed to support this work.
“What’s amazing is that the skill sets are already here,” she said. “The radiologists, pain specialists, physical therapists, they are all here. They just needed someone to help organize and bring those teams under the umbrella of multidisciplinary care together.”
The post 1st gynecological surgery professorship expands access in Hawaiʻi first appeared on University of Hawaiʻi System News.
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