Advancing Native Health and Wellness Conference

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is written in response to the program announcement, PA-10-071: NIH Support for Conferences and Scientific Meetings (Parent R13). This application seeks funding to support a unique, "first-ever" national health conference being convened in Anchorage, Alaska that will focus specifically on the health and wellness of the Native Peoples of the US (Alaska Natives, American Indians and Native Hawaiians). The conference program will be co-sponsored by the Center for Native and Pacific Health Disparities Research (CNPHDR), Department of Native Hawaiian Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP). These two native-focused organizations have formed a cooperative partnership to plan, coordinate and implement this conference entitled "Advancing Native Health and Wellness". Both organizations are well established native serving organizations who collectively have more than 50+ years of health conference planning experience and who represent native physicians, academic scholars, and primary health care providers with close ties to Native communities, villages and tribes. The overall conference objective is to provide an innovative conference setting that will stimulate discussion and sharing of scientific knowledge, cultural wisdom and native-driven models of health and wellness that will inform health policy and health programs designed to promote the health and wellness of Native Peoples in the US. The 5-1/2-day conference will include health care topics related to native driven research, diversity in the biomedical and health care workforce, community engagement and traditional healing through scientific presentations, training/faculty workshops and community panel discussions as well as talking circles and talk story sessions. The application aims to complete these goals through the following: Specific aim #1: Present and discuss the latest scientific advances on health and health care disparities among Alaska Natives, American Indians, and Native Hawaiians. Specific aim #2: Provide opportunities and raise awareness of student/resident training and faculty development programs designed to build a diverse biomedical research and health care workforce for Native Peoples of the US. Specific aim #3: Share and understand the practice of traditional healing and cultural wisdom to achieve holistic health in Native Peoples. Specific aim #4: Describe and demonstrate the impact of culturally appropriate models of health care service and community programs that have been effective in improving the health and wellness of Native peoples of the US. Thus, the conference will feature a strong scientific program embedded within a native cultural context that will bring together a diverse group of speakers representing research scientists, students, emerging investigators, traditional healers, health care providers, community leaders and policy makers. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The scientific need for a conference dedicated to examining Native health disparities is both timely and fills a gap in our understanding of the complex issues that have contributed to or served as the root causes of excess health burdens such as diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease and suicide that disproportionately affects Native populations in the US. This conference aims to explore some of the complexities that Native People experience in the US that may be detrimental to their health as well as factors that enable resilience and ownership of their health and wellness that has the potential for reversing health disparities across all Native Peoples in the US.