This conference fulfills the NIH's overall mission to improve American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) health and eliminate health disparities by fostering innovative collaborations and partnerships across national, regional, and local tribes, tribal colleges, and tribal consortia. The conference will result in concrete plans to collaborate n and increase capacity for health disparities research and to increase AIAN in the scientific workforce.
The specific aims are to: (1) Engage tribal and native community partners and researchers in planning and identification of research opportunities to ameliorate behaviorally- and socially-based negative health conditions;(2) Build capacity in health disparities research through a series of workshop discussions/trainings about the latest advances in indigenous and Western research methods, policies, processes, and approaches;(3) Create, compile and disseminate partnership tools and measures. This conference's premise is that a culturally tailored dialogue will aid AIAN stakeholders in identifying the most pressing health disparities in their communities, the most valuable ways of communicating and working together with research partners, and the ways in which AIAN tribes and communities want to be involved in health research.
The aims of this R13 conference grant application, Vision to Action: Achieving Health Equity in Indian Country Partnership Summit, directly address the NIH research priority of addressing health disparities experienced by racial and ethnic minorities, the rural and urban poor, and other medically underserved populations by (a) promoting American Indian Alaska Native (AIAN) -specific community-based participatory research;(b) enhancing University and tribal community capacity to conduct health disparities research;(c) developing partnerships to recruit and retain AIAN to the scientific research workforce;and (d) by promoting the inclusion of women, minorities, and other medically underserved groups in clinical trials.
