About Us – A Reputation Second To None

In 1968, Orthopedic Associates of Hawaii Inc. (OAHI) was formed by the joining of the practices of Drs. Albert Chun-Hoon, Lawrence Gordon and Alan Pavel. It was the goal of the Associates to provide Hawaii with the highest standard and most modern specialized care for people suffering from injuries or diseases of their bones and joints.

Dr. Chun-Hoon was the youngest son of the famous Chun-Hoon family. He attended Iolani School where he excelled academically but also in his senior year won the State 100-yard dash. After completing Bowdoin College he went to Yale Medical School, and interned at Philadelphia General Hospital after which he served in the US Army in Okinawa. He then practiced General Medicine for a few months in the office of his father-in-law, Dr. H.Q. Pang prior to training in Orthopedic Surgery at Baylor University. He returned home in 1965, practiced for 3 years in his own office in the Ala Moana Building before joining Drs. Gordon and Pavel to form Orthopedic Associates of Hawaii, Inc.

He was not only a well-regarded Orthopedist but was a leader in many areas of the Honolulu community. Among the many contributions he made to the community included terms as Chairman of the Board of HMSA, Chairman of the Board of Medical Licensing, President of the Hawaii Medical Association and a Board Member of First Interstate Bank, First Hawaiian Bank, Aloha United Way, the Blood Bank of Hawaii, Chief of Staff of St. Francis Hospital and in 1982 was awarded the prestigious A. H. Robbins Award for outstanding community service. He was a major contributor to the development of the Medical Claims Conciliation Panel, which has been invaluable in adjudicating medical malpractice claims, and significantly cut the cost of litigation to the benefit of both the doctors and their patients. He passed away in 1998 from cancer.

Dr. Pavel was a native New Yorker, graduated from Yale University and the University of Chicago School of Medicine, interned at Cornell-New York Hospital and then spent two years in the Navy in Florida. He then went to the renowned orthopedic training program at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and upon completion of his training was offered a job at the Straub Clinic where he practiced until 1968 when he joined Dr. Gordon as a partner. While his primary contributions to the community centered on his commitment to quality care for his patients and the training of young physicians, he was a major contributor to the Medical Conciliation Panel joining Dr. Chun-Hoon in this endeavor.

As an Assistant, then Associate and finally a full Clinical Professor of Surgery (Orthopedics) at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii—Manoa, he was renowned as a teacher whose principles, ethical standards and words of wisdom are quoted to this day by his former students and colleagues during almost every orthopedic conference. After unanimously winning the “Teacher of the Year” award several years in succession, he was disqualified so someone else might have a chance to win. He died from cancer in 2004.

Dr. Gordon has had long if somewhat intermittent ties with Hawaii. His grandfather Joseph Smith Hyde was a Mormon missionary on Kauai and in Laie for several years in the 1880′s. His grandmother arrived independently from Utah in 1922 being appointed by President Calvin Coolidge as the first woman in America to hold the position of Collector of Customs. She continued in that job until Franklin Roosevelt became President. Dr. Gordon’s father (Dr. Maurice Gordon) came to Honolulu to work at Leahi Hospital in 1925, subsequently ran the Kula Tuberculosis Sanitarium before specializing in eye, ear, nose and throat surgery. He practiced in the old Alexander Young Building until his death in 1962. His mother taught history and English at Punahou School in the mid 1920′s and again during the 2nd World War.

A graduate of Punahou where he was a champion middle distance runner, he attended Stanford University and the Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Gordon had his orthopedic training at Stanford, spent a year as a National Foundation Fellow in London, England, served in the U.S. Navy and then taught at the University of Washington School of Medicine for three years before returning home in 1965. He developed the orthopedic training program at the University where he was the Professor and Chairman of the Orthopedic Section for 9 years. He retired from active practice in 1991 but continues to have minor teaching responsibilities. Since retirement he has spent over a year developing a modern orthopedic department and its curriculum and teaching orthopedic surgery in Uganda working for Health Volunteers Overseas.

During the subsequent years world-renowned associates included: Drs. James Doyle, Eugene Lance and Alan (Keola) Richardson.

Dr. Doyle joined Orthopedic Associates in 1977 as Hawaii’s first fellowship trained Hand Surgeon. He was the 11th and youngest child and first member of his family to graduate from University—the University of California, Berkeley where he also completed Medical School at the San Francisco campus in 1958. He completed his orthopedic residency at the same Institution in 1963 and served two years in the US Air Force as an Orthopedic Surgeon, he spent a fellowship year at New York Orthopaedic Hospital (Columbia University) in Hand Surgery under the renowned Dr. Robert Carroll.

Early practice years were spent in San Francisco becoming Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, UCSF, where he directed the Orthopaedic Hand Clinic. He was awarded “Teacher of the Year” from the Orthopaedic Department in 1974. The move to Hawaii in September of 1977 allowed Dr. Doyle to introduce Microsurgery and Replantation Surgery to Hawaii and he performed Hawaii’s first successful replantation surgery at Queen’s Medical Center in November of 1977 on the completely amputated thumb of a cowboy.

Dr. Doyle succeeded Dr. Gordon as Director of the Orthopedic Residency Program at the John A. Burns School of Medicine in 1987 and retired from that position in 1995. He was an invited Visiting Professor to several medical schools and Medical Societies in Japan, Italy and throughout the United States and consultant to the Government of Guam and two US Army Hospitals and the Shriner’s Hospitals.

He contributed over 50 scientific articles and chapters in textbooks on hand surgery. For five years he was the Assistant Editor of the Journal of Hand Surgery. Semi-retirement activities have included publication of a textbook on Surgical Anatomy of the Hand and Upper Extremity with Michael Botte and much of a textbook on the Hand and Wrist. Dr. Doyle is currently Co-Editor-in-Chief a Journal on Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery.

Dr Lance was unique among his peers having both an MD degree but a PD as well. He was not only as a skilled and caring surgeon but as a renowned research scientist known not only in America but in Europe and the Orient as well. A New Yorker, graduate of Cornel University and Medical School and a Resident in General Surgery and then Orthopedic Surgery, Dr. Lance was recognized for his brilliant mind as a scientist. Showing such promise, he was given an opportunity to obtain a PhD in the field of Immunology while working under the Nobel Laureate, Sir Peter Medawar in London. After completing this advanced degree he returned to New York to complete his surgical orthopedic training. He remained at Cornell’s Hospital for Special Surgery as an Assistant and then Associate Professor of Orthopedics. He was then asked to return to London as Head of the Division of Surgical Science and Consultant Surgeon (one of the most prestigious positions in the Surgical fields in Great Britain). This institute is comparable to our National Institutes of Health. After three years he and his family wished to return to the United States and resigned from that position.

By invitation he joined OAHI in 1974 where he continued providing superior care to his patients as well as performing research and publishing scientific papers as Director of the Research Laboratories at Shriner’s Hospitals for Children. As a Clinical Professor at the University of Hawaii he fulfilled his passion for teaching medical students and residents. He died just prior to his 60th year in 1993. During his professional lifetime he was author or co-author of over 135 scientific papers, articles and book chapters. His legacy will be long remembered.

Dr. Richardson was the son of the first Polynesian Orthopedic Surgeon in the world, Dr. B. Allen (Buster) Richardson who practiced orthopedic surgery with offices in the Alexander Young Hotel Building from 1950 until shortly before his death in 1981. Many of his ancestors and relatives of Hawaiian, Chinese and Caucasian ethnicity contributed to the Island’s Civic life in the fields of law, education, medicine and government including retired Chief Justice William Richardson.

Our Dr. Richardson was the product of an education at Punahou School, Yale University, and UCLA School of Medicine where he also received his resident training in orthopedics. He then spent a year at the famous Kerlan-Jobe Clinic in Sports Medicine. During his schooling he excelled academically as well as setting the 100 yard high school record in the breaststroke and being an All American college swimmer.

Returning to Honolulu and with the full support of his father, he joined OAHI in 1979. As a skilled Sports Medicine surgeon, he cared for the Wahine volleyball and basketball teams for 25 years. He followed Dr. Doyle as Director of the University’s Orthopedic Training Program ultimately as Professor of Surgery at the Medical School. Additionally he was a valued member of the Trustees of Punahou School during his 12- year tenure.

Dr. Richardson continued his commitment and interest in swimming by working with and finally being the Chair of the International Swimming Federation after serving as Team Physician to six US Olympic Swimming Teams. During his tenure with Olympic swimming, he was instrumental in requiring drug testing without prior notification of the 25 best swimmers in the world at each event thereby reducing the impact of performance enhancing drugs in the Olympics. It was his fortitude on this matter that ultimately led to the disqualification of several Chinese women competitors in the face of tremendous international pressure. For these and other efforts he was posthumously named One of the 25 Most Influential People in the History of USA Swimming.

He was an outstanding and beloved teacher, skilled surgeon, and inventive and thoughtful administrator. He died at age 56 from cancer. He is missed by all who knew him.
Since it inception, the not-for-profit organization consisted of some of the brightest and most experienced orthopedic surgeons in the nation. The Associates themselves handpicked all of their new associates based on academic achievements, professional experience, fellowship training and the reputation for integrity and the highest ethical standards.

This has allowed us to provide our referring physicians and their patients the best possible orthopedic and orthopedic subspecialty care including:

• Arthritis Surgery
• Arthroscopic Sports Medicine
• Arthroscopic Surgery
• Bone Tumor and Bone Cancer Surgery
• Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery
• Foot and Ankle Surgery
• Hand Surgery and Rehabilitation
• Hip and Knee Replacement
• Orthopedic Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery