Collaborations with Academic Institutions

1. Northern Plains Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH) AATCHB Program)

NARCH was established to allow American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribes or tribally-based organizations to form partnerships with academic institutions so that intensive academic level biomedical and behavioral research could be conducted upon existing and persistent AI/AN health problems. A major goal of the NARCH initiative is to increase the number capacity of AI/AN health professionals. NARCH funded projects include:

• NARCH III: Predicting Insulin Resistance in American Indian Youth (PI: Jennifer Larson, MD)
• NARCH III: Screening for Asthma among Children in Northern Plains Tribal Communities (PI: Kim Rodehurst, PhD)
• NARCH IV Mood Disorder Assessment in Northern Plains Indians (PI: Jacque Gray, PhD)
  

2. The Yuonihan Project

The Yuonihan Project is a project in collaboration with the University of South Dakota’s Center for Disabilities. The project is a community-based media campaign with Northern Plains American Indian Tribes that focuses on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) and is aimed at providing education and awareness to reduce the number of alcohol-exposed pregnancies in the Northern Plains region.

3. American Indian Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey

This project is in collaboration with Dr. Shinobu Watanabe-Galloway of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Nebraska tribes. The purpose of this project is to conduct secondary analysis of the Nebraska State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data for American Indians.

4. Winnebago Community Health Profile

This project initiated in the Fall of 2005, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska, designed to conduct a tribal health program assessment and a community health profile for the Winnebago tribe.

5. Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) project.

The SEPA program, in collaboration with the University of Nebraska Medical Center is aimed at supporting the development and evaluation of model biomedical science partnerships that focus on health-related sciences. The overall goal of the program is to encourage partnerships between biomedical scientists, science educators, and community leaders that improve K-12 student and public understanding of the health sciences by stimulating student interest in science, increasing the number of college science majors, developing higher science/technology competency in the workforce, and improving AI/AN society’s science and health research literacy.

6. Clinical Trials Network Collaboration (CTN) - Ohio Node

This project is in collaboration with the Ohio Node of the Clinical Trials Network at the University of Cincinnati. The projects are designed to promote collaboration between researchers and substance abuse treatment centers to:

• Propose and test promising “real-world” treatments that will actually be used.
• Identify barriers to doing research or to applying its results in the treatment setting.
• Find other ways to help substance-dependent persons