Page 13 - Winter 2020 Castle MD

Following medical school, Dr. Matsukawa completed three years in Loma Linda’s internal medicine residency program with his sights set on returning back home to Hawai‘i to raise his family. He and Cheryl had met through an online chatline while he was in college, and they soon discovered they had grown up near each other in Ka¯ne‘ohe. Cheryl’s brother used to play with Dr. Matsukawa when they were young boys, but they had lost touch with each other over the years.
Within a month of completing his residency in 2010, Dr. Matsukawa and his family moved to Hawai‘i where he spent the next eight years as a clinic-based physician
at Straub’s Mililani and Ka¯ne‘ohe Family Health Centers and helped develop a Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) pilot program. He had initially hoped to join Adventist Health Castle, but it wasn’t until May 2018, a few years after Castle had opened its network of primary care clinics in Windward O‘ahu, that Dr. Matsukawa found the opportunity he had waited for: an employer-based practice in Ka¯ne‘ohe where he could provide comprehensive care in a location that was convenient for patients.
He describes caring for patients as a “privilege and an honor” and is always open to learning new ideas from his patients. “For me, that’s why medicine is called a ‘practice’,” he says. “I don’t know everything, and I love learning.”
Like his medical profession, service to others remains a central part of Dr. Matsukawa’s life path. Throughout his high
school, college and medical school years, he fit service projects into his busy academic schedule, including work with inner city youth and a homeless ministry.
These days, he is involved in some sort of community activity once or twice a month. He is a member of Nago Club (part of the Hawai‘i United Okinawa Association) and volunteers his time at the Okinawan Center and the annual Okinawan Festival. He
lends his medical expertise as a member of Ka¯ne‘ohe Elementary School’s Health and Wellness Committee. And, as a certified Black Belt, he coaches at Wadokan Judo Club in Ka¯ne‘ohe and is a referee for Club, OIA and ILH judo tournaments.
Dr. Matsukawa also is passionate about personal development and organizational advancement. Since 2017 he has been
a clinical instructor and now assistant clinical professor at the John A. Burns School of Medicine while also precepting third-year internal medicine students at the Ka¯ne‘ohe clinic. He helped develop efficient workflow processes and designed and implemented initiatives to improve and prevent physician burnout at a previous workplace.
As Adventist Health Castle’s medical director since early 2019, he is helping to develop efficient integration of clinical care and new technologies system-wide, among other initiatives.
“My number-one trait on StrengthsFinder (an online assessment tool that helps identify one’s innate strengths and character attributes) is ‘ideation,’” Dr.
Matsukawa explains. “I love coming up with new ideas. It energizes me.” That’s also why he enjoys working with others on committees and projects where ideas can be explored and shared.
Looking around his office, one can see where Dr. Matsukawa gets his youthful energy: a bookshelf displays an assortment of Disney and Star Wars figures and novelties, including two R2D2 robots, one donning a Santa cap, ready for the holiday season. On a corner of the credenza is a Star Wars “Death Star” orb made of LEGO blocks complete with minifigures. The artificial wreath that hangs on the wall is decorated with Star Wars characters that light up when they speak. And a four-foot- tall Stormtrooper, given to Dr. Matsukawa by his medical assistant, greets patients at the door into the exam room area.
Growing up as the youngest child of
a single mother, Dr. Matsukawa didn’t have much in the way of material things, including LEGO, but it is clear that his upbringing nurtured a curious mind, a generous heart and a commitment to helping others.
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