Dr. Danny M. Takanishi Jr., a tenured Professor of Surgery and Associate Chair for Academic Affairs at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM), is an alumnus of JABSOM. Dr. Takanishi completed a General Surgery Residency and Surgical Critical Care Fellowship in Hawai’i, maintaining the American Board of Surgery-certification in both specialties. He then completed a National Institutes of Health-sponsored, Surgical Oncology Fellowship at The University of Chicago and remained on its faculty for a number of years, serving as an Associate Program Director for the Surgical Residency Program and the Director of the Comprehensive Breast Center, prior to returning to Hawaii. He has since served in a number of roles at JABSOM, which include General Surgery Residency Program Director for 13-years, Chair of the Department of Surgery for 11-years, Faculty Senate President, and Faculty Accreditation Lead for the medical school’s LCME site visit in 2017.
Dr. Takanishi has also been active nationally in medical education endeavors for many years, serving as a past-Chair of the USMLE Step II Surgery and the Anatomy and Embryology Test Material Development Committees, Step II Interdisciplinary Review Committees, member of the SPEX Oversight Committee and the USMLE Management Committee. He has also served in a number of roles with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, such as past-Chair of the Transitional Year Review Committee, past-Vice-Chair of the Surgery Review Committee, past-Chair of the Common Program Requirements Subcommittee of the Council of Review Committees, past-Co-Chair of the Transitional Year Residency Milestones Development Workgroup, past-Chair of the Complex General Surgical Oncology Milestones Development Workgroup, and prior member of the Professionalism 2.0 Harmonized Milestones, Complex General Surgical Oncology 2.0 Milestones, and the General Surgery 2.0 Milestones revision Workgroups. He is an appointed associate oral examiner for the Certifying Examination of the American Board of Surgery. He has also served on LCME ad hoc survey teams since 2016. Most recently, he was elected as a professional member of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME). It is the governing body that sets the standards and accredits medical education programs throughout the United States and Canada. He has been elected for an initial 3-year term, effective July 1, 2020, and is the first from Hawai’i to be elected to the LCME.
Danny Takanishi Jr., M.D.
Professor, Associate Chair of Academic Affairs, & Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs