NPTEC Background Information

MISSION

To provide leadership, technical assistance, support, and advocacy to Northern Plains tribal nations and communities in order to eliminate the disparities in health that currently exist for tribal people of the area.

APPROACH

The Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairmen's Health Board (AATCHB) recognizes the challenges of Northern Plains tribal nations, such as extreme poverty, high unemployment level, and low educational attainment, which underlie many of the health problems. In order to begin addressing these formidable challenges, AATCHB has established the Northern Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center (NPTEC), which will provide an administrative home from which effective interventions that combine epidemiology, research, and public health practice can be developed and disseminated to the tribal communities.

Resolving the severe health disparities that exist for the tribal people of this area will require a coordinated approach, including a partnership between the eighteen sovereign Indian tribes of the area, NPTEC, Indian Health Service (IHS), other federal and state agencies, and the academic health institutions of the area. As a tribally operated program, NPTEC will have a unique trust relationship with the tribes of the area. This trust relationship will allow NPTEC to collaborate with federal and academic entities for Indian-specific health projects to produce a far greater effect than could be achieved by any entity alone.

NPTEC will emphasize developing projects that deliver services of direct benefit at the community level. It will focus on the health priorities established in the Strategic Long Range Plan developed collaboratively by the Aberdeen Area tribes and Aberdeen Area IHS, with an emphasis on prevention efforts based on the culturally appropriate medicine wheel concept of the spiritual, physical, social, and mental dimensions of health.

FACILITIES

NPTEC is located in the AATCHB office in Rapid City, South Dakota (view a map to our office). This facility has broadband Internet access, a separate server configured specifically to meet the needs of NPTEC for data storage and security, plus video teleconferencing capability. A computer training room will be established at the facility.

SPECIFIC GOALS

Northern Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center will fulfill its mission by establishing expertise and capacity in three domains vital to improving the health of American Indian people of Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota:

Domain 1 - Epidemiology:

Long term goal: Develop the capacity to support the Aberdeen Area tribes in their need to have timely, accurate, and useful data on health status.

Short term goals:

• Determine the scope and availability of existing data sets containing information on the health of Northern Plains Indian people.
• Develop access to these data sets.
• Develop a comprehensive, accurate, and up-to-date report on the health status of Aberdeen Area Indian people.

Domain 2 - Public Health Practice:

Long term goal: Establish the capacity to support critical public health functions
for Northern Plains tribal people.

Short term goals:

• Develop collaborations with Aberdeen Area IHS and state and federal health programs to assess public health practice capacity in Northern Plains tribes and communities.
• Identify existing strengths and weaknesses in public health practice activities in Northern Plains Tribes and communities.

Domain 3 - Research:

Short term goals:

• Identify past and current health research projects in Northern Plains communities.
• Develop a forum to identify the health research priorities of Northern Plains tribes.
• Establish formal agreements with academic institutions including tribal community colleges to collaborate on health research priorities of Northern Plains communities.
• Participate in the Aberdeen Area Institutional Review Board to ensure full protection of Northern Plains tribes and individuals from health research risks.

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