This year, the Aloha Medical Mission has already sent doctors out to the field eight times. On one mission to Chuuk in Micronesia, in conjunction with the Hokule'a, O'ahu's Dr. Vernon Ansdell identified a new ailment, which he dubbed Spam disease. He also established a course of treatment with antibiotics.

To raise funds for supplies for future work like this, the mission is holding "Four Doctors, a Patient & the Mayor" tomorrow at Blaisdell Concert Hall. Four mission members who also happen to be pianists — Drs. Jorge Camara, Timothy Lee, Reuben Guerrero and Elizabeth Ignacio — will play classical works. Chris Cerna — the patient, who had his eyes removed at the age of 8 due to cancer, and then had the withered sockets reconstructed and filled with implants by mission doctors — will perform with his band. And the mayor will, of course, sing.

The mission was founded in 1983 by members of the Philippine Medical Association of Hawai'i to provide free medical and other health-related services, supplies and equipment to areas of the Philippines, Southeast Asia and the Pacific where healthcare is virtually nonexistent. Now doctors from all backgrounds have carried out 92 medical missions — on their own dime.

Camara, an opthalmologist who has been with the mission for 20 years, says, "It's been a great privilege. ... Of all the things I've done in my career, it's one of the most moving and satisfying activities I've done."

On his first mission, in the Philippine province of Palawan, Camara saw a 37-year-old man who had cataracts. "He had been blind for at least 10 years," says Camara. "He didn't think anything could be done (for him)."

In fact, cataracts are "easily remedied in surgery," says Camara. "I did one eye the first night, and he came in the next morning and was astounded about being able to see. He was crying with joy. ... That first encounter made me come back year after year."

While physician volunteers pay for their own transportation and lodging for missions, the organization still needs funding for medical supplies.

Ignacio, who started out participating in the mission as a high school student (her mother is a doctor, too) points out that the money raised by the concert will be used not only for the international missions, but also the organization's free clinic — the only one in Hawai'i — at Palama Settlement.

It's not uncommon for doctors to have studied piano as youths. "It helps with manual dexterity," says Ignacio. "Of the four of us (performing), three are surgeons. It helps keep the the fingers nimble."

Reach Lesa Griffith at lgriffith@honoluluadvertiser.com.