The University of Hawaii’s medical school welcomed its largest incoming class of 77 students with a white coat ceremony Friday evening.

That’s five more students than entered the John A. Burns School of Medicine last year.

Kaiser Permanente helped expand the class by offering on-site clinical training at its facilities as well as scholarships for students. The goal is to alleviate the physician shortage by educating doctors locally in hopes they will stay in the islands and practice, especially in needy, rural areas.

“Kaiser Permanente leadership’s vision and generosity is empowering JABSOM to compete with other medical schools for our state’s most promising medical student candidates,” Dean Jerris Hedges said in a statement.

“To lose top student talent to mainland medical schools is especially disappointing because we know that if students attend medical school and do their residency training in Hawaii, about 85% will stay here to practice,” he said. “That’s the highest retention rate in the nation.”

Starting this fall, Kaiser plans to sponsor clinical rotations for third- and fourth-year medical students, offering faculty and space for them at Moanalua Medical Center and Kaiser’s other facilities. The health care provider also funded five new four-year scholarships for medical students, an $800,000 donation.

Hawaii Pacific Health also donated five scholarships for the incoming class, while The Queen’s Health Systems funds three medical school scholarships for students admitted through ‘Imi Ho‘ola, the yearlong educational program to prepare disadvantaged students for medical school.

During Friday’s ceremony at McKinley High School, doctors who graduated in the medical school’s class of 1969 were on hand to help the students don the new white lab coats they will wear in clinics and hospitals, and the new recruits recited the Hippocratic Oath.

Of the 77 students in this year’s incoming class of 2023, 66 live in Hawaii, 10 are of Filipino ancestry and nine of Native Hawaiian ancestry.

“Our goal with this partnership is to give more opportunities to talented doctors-to-be in Hawaii so they can stay in the islands to get an exceptional education and practice medicine after they graduate,” said Dr. Geoff Sewell, president of Hawaii Permanente Medical Group.

“We also find that JABSOM physicians are particularly dedicated to improving health equity and eliminating care disparities among our local communities, so we’re thrilled by the potential this partnership has for the health of the people of Hawaii,” he said.