ABOUT THE ASIA-PACIFIC INSTITUTE

The Asia-Pacific Institute of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases (APITMID), is administratively located in the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and is physically located in the Biosciences Research Building at the new Kaka‘ako Campus.

Organizational Structure
The organizational structure of APITMID (below) is fashioned after a proven formula, which has accelerated the development of similar research programs at other institutions. With this structure, there is every expectation for unprecedented achievements and growth during and beyond the period of initial institutional investment.

Importantly, this structure encourages collaboration between the faculties of the John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, the Pacific Biomedical Research Center, the College of Natural Sciences, the College of Engineering, the College of Social Sciences, and the School of Ocean and Earth Science Technology, and serve as a paradigm for change at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Thus, The Asia-Pacific Institute is more than merely the flagship of the Department of Tropical Medicine and Medical Microbiology within JABSOM. Instead, The Asia-Pacific Institute represents a university-wide initiative, drawing on the complementary strengths and multidisciplinary expertise within the above-mentioned Level-V units. In addition, the Institute has an immediate impact on community health through research projects conducted in close partnership with the State of Hawaii Department of Health, the Department of Defense and the biotech industry in Hawaii. With strong institutional commitment and the convergence of expertise and involvement of more well-established programs and well-funded investigators, The Asia-Pacific Institute is suitably positioned to sustain a high level of research funding and national and international pre-eminence as a true center of research excellence for transdisciplinary studies on tropical medicine and infectious diseases in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Asia-Pacific Institute develops programs in partnership with institutions in Asian and Pacific countries. The mission is to use the latest technology to monitor infectious diseases in that region, and to use these data to develop early-warning systems for epidemic transmission. The goal is to build laboratory and epidemiologic capacity in selected countries where epidemic infectious diseases commonly occur. Syndromic surveillance and pathogen discovery programs are developed that allow effective monitoring of both old and new diseases in the Asia-Pacific region. Data collected in these systems are used to develop effective prevention and control strategies.