Taking Care of Our Kupuna

Taking care of our kupuna can be one of the most challenging yet rewarding jobs. At KKV, we recognize how underserved the elderly community as a whole can be, so we make sure to bring them to the forefront of care. As we strive to do this, we’ve welcomed a new face who is proud to specialize in serving our kupuna, Geriatric Primary Care Provider Dr. Kapono Chang.  

Dr. Chang is proud to be a local boy, born and raised in Kaneohe. After graduating from Kamehameha Schools Kapalama in 2007, he went on to further his education at Stanford University. There, he received a bachelor’s degree in human biology after graduating in 2011. “I always had a passion for alternative and integrative medicine,” he said. “I was especially interested in health systems in general.” But the road to finding his passion for the medical field was a bumpy one.  

After his freshman year at Stanford University, Dr. Chang faced a near-death experience where he found himself in the Intensive Care Unit. “Even though I was at a worldclass facility [in the mainland], I felt like I wasn’t being listened to,” he recalled. “It was scary, I almost died.” This experience led him to question whether this was really the profession he wanted to pursue. He remembers asking himself, “this can’t be all there is to healthcare, right?”  

Upon his return home to Hawaii, he made it a goal to surround himself with the community he missed while away at college. This led him to get involved with the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana, where he met Dr. Emmett Aluli, a family doctor from Molokai. “He really changed my perspective on the healthcare system,” said Dr. Chang. “Hearing his story sparked my passion for medicine again, but with the focus on our local communities.” Dr. Chang then went on to osteopathic medical school at A.T. Still University, where he graduated in 2020. In 2023, he completed a family medicine residency at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, followed by a geriatric residency in 2024.  

As much of his medical training was during peak Covid times, Dr. Chang witnessed firsthand how much support the elderly population needed when it came to healthcare. “During this experience, I was a part of many tough conversations, end-of-life type of conversations,” he recalled. “It opened my eyes to how underserved our kupuna are in general, not just during Covid.” This period hit Dr. Chang especially hard as he lost his grandma and dad to Covid. Although he felt so low, he says the experience made him a more empathetic and understanding person and medical provider. “I learned how to guide and support people during some of the most difficult times. And in return, that helped to heal me from my losses.”  

Since officially joining the KKV ohana in September 2024, Dr. Chang says his experience working with our community has been great so far. One of the many highlights of his week is holding osteopathic manipulation clinics every Thursday at Na Koa. This is a technique Dr. Chang learned while in medical school, where a provider manipulates the bones to realign the body and improve pain and disfunction. Many have compared it to the Native Hawaiian practice of lomi. During residency, Dr. Chang also loved doing home visits with patients. He is excited that he gets to continue that every Tuesday afternoon. When he’s not performing osteopathic manipulation or visiting his patients, Dr. Chang splits his time between the Gulick Elder Care Center and KKV’s Main Clinic.

Growing up with a multiethnic background, Dr. Chang was always drawn to serving his community and its many cultures here in Hawaii. When he was looking for jobs after graduation, KKV really stuck out to him. “I was so impressed,” he said. “I could really see that KKV values all aspects of community health, not just medical.” This was important to him as a provider who specializes in geriatric care because of his passion to support and heal older generations in innovative yet respectful ways. “Our kupuna have so many needs, and we as a community can do better to provide better care for them.” Although his position is not new to KKV, he brings a renewed energy and love for the kupuna of Kalihi.