Director's Message July 29, 2022

If you are injured while on vacation, or if your bags are lost and you need to renew a prescription, your care can be coordinated to ensure that you can get help wherever you are. If you have questions, please call (808) 838-6591 or (808) 433-0202.

Seeking Land in Hilo

VA Pacific Islands Health Care System (VAPIHCS) is seeking to purchase a parcel of land on which to construct a new Community Based Outpatient Clinic (CBOC). VAPIHCS is looking for a parcel that is no less than 2 acres in the Hilo area. To be considered, the site must be outside the Tsunami Inundation Zone. For additional information, contact Marianne Marinucci at (202) 632-5468 or Marianna.marinucci@va.gov

National Exercise with Your Child Week

Next week is National Exercise with your child week, which runs from July 31, 2022 to August 5, 2022. Take your children or grandchildren on a hike! Have a family hula hoop contest! Take a dance class together! Moving your body is a great way to stay healthy, and to feel better overall. VA’s Whole Health Program addresses this with all kinds of suggestions for ways to keep moving as you age.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

The Department of Education recently expanded the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program which may forgive the remaining balance on your student loans. Under the PSLF Limited Waiver, which expires on October 31, 2022, borrowers may receive credit for periods of repayment on loans that would otherwise not qualify for PSLF.

Thoughts from Chaplain Richie Charles

For many years prior to 1954, it was believed by many sports experts that it was simply impossible to run a mile in under 4 minutes. But there was one individual, Roger Bannister, who sought to defy the odds and attempt to challenge that belief. On the morning of May 6, 1954, Sir Roger Bannister did the impossible, becoming the first person to run a mile in under four minutes! Before the announcer could even finish saying 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds, the audience erupted in a sea of applause. He accomplished a great feat indeed. But what’s even more interesting is what happened afterwards.

Just 46 days after Bannister’s victory, John Landy, an Australian runner, not only broke the same 4 minute barrier again, but this time with a time of 3 minutes 58 seconds. Then, just a year later, three runners broke the four-minute barrier all in a single race. And over the past half century, more than a thousand runners have conquered a barrier that had once been considered humanly impossible.

The question becomes, did human nature magically change just 46 days after Mr. Bannister’s victory? No. Instead, what changed was their mindset. That is, the runners of the past had been held back by a belief that said they could not surpass the four-minute mile, and that artificial limit became the invisible barrier holding them back. Runners must have unknowingly adjusted their abilities to fit the popular belief of the time, leaving them to lose the race to beat the 4-minute time before the race even began.

Are there artificial limits that you have accepted as being true? Can those artificial limits have an impact on what you can accomplish? Henry Ford once said: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't -- you're right.” 

One Team, One Ohana!
Adam M. Robinson, Jr., MD, MBA, CPE
Director, VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
VADM, MC, USN, (RET)
36th Surgeon General, USN

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