Center for American Indian Community Health to be Created at KU Medical Center

Researchers from the University of Kansas Medical Center and the American Indian Health Research and Education Alliance have joined forces to create the Center for American Indian Community Health, according to a press release issued by KU on July 30.

The initiative, which is being funded by a $7.5 million grant from the National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities, will set up a pipeline to attract American Indian high school and college students to the KU School of Medicine’s master’s of public health degree program and other graduate programs to increase the number of Native people entering the health professions and conducting health research. Medical center faculty are already working with Haskell Indian Nations University to identify potential students for the master's of public health program.

Five years ago, there were no American Indian students in the program, the release said. Three Native students have already earned degrees; five more are now enrolled and several more have applied for the fall semester.

The new Center for American Indian Community Health will enhance work that began in 2005, when KU Medical Center joined with seven other academic and community organizations to form AIHREA. AIHREA, whose mission is to improve the health of American Indians through quality participatory research and education, has partnerships with government agencies and institutions involved in Native American health and health research.

“Our goal is to train and educate the next generation of Native health researchers and health care professionals, hoping that they will return to their communities and help to address health disparities,” said Christine M. Daley, associate professor of preventive medicine and public health at the School of Medicine, the director of AIHREA and one of the principal investigators on the project.