Category: Health Research and Data

With four years to go before the target date of 2020, new data from the Healthy Alaskans 2020 initiative shows progress is being made on meeting the ten-year goals for improving the health of all Alaskans. Of the 25 leading health priorities tracked, Alaska has met, or is on target to meet, 14 of the scorecard goals. The leading health priorities include: reducing the rates of cancer, suicide, and interpersonal violence and sexual assault; decreasing alcohol, tobacco, and drug use; ...

During the past six years, ANTHC Clinical & Research Services and the Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with Southcentral Foundation (SCF), have been conducting the MAW (Biomarker Feedback to Motivate Tobacco Cessation in Pregnant Alaska Native Women) Study. In the first phase of the study, we demonstrated that prenatal smoking exposes infants in utero to nicotine, the addictive component of tobacco, and NNK, a tobacco-specific carcinogen. In phase two, we presented these findings to pregnant and postpartum women to obtain their ...

Recently, 14 health related manuscripts, three research proposals and nine abstracts were submitted for review by the ANTHC Abstract, Manuscript, and Proposal Review Committee (AMP-RC). This internal committee reviews submissions in advance of our Health Research Review Committee (HRRC) meeting. HRRC is an ANTHC Board committee charged with final review of all health related manuscripts and all research proposals. Throughout the course of a year, more than 100 such submissions are received, each with the goal of positively impacting the ...

ANTHC is co-locating a Climate Change Adaptation Program with the Denali Commission’s Environmentally Threatened Communities Program. Program Manager Don Antrobus will work with the Commission’s Federal Co-chair, Director of Programs and Commissioners, as well as federal agencies, the State of Alaska and local stakeholders to develop and implement strategies to support community resiliency in the face of climate change. Climate change is an important issue to the health of our people and our communities. Over the past 60 years, the ...

The Alaska Native Tumor Registry, part of the ANTHC Alaska Native Epidemiology Center, was recently awarded second place for data quality by the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. Alaska Native Tumor Registry staff were presented with the award at the annual National Cancer Institute’s SEER meeting last week in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This award recognizes the registry’s commitment to data quality and indicates the achievement of meeting data quality benchmarks against which all SEER-funded registries ...

Dr. Anne Lanier, a longtime public health pioneer, dedicated clinician and mentor, was recently inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame. Dr. Lanier began her career in Alaska in 1967 at the Alaska Native Medical Center. As a family practice physician, medical epidemiologist, researcher and administrator, Dr. Lanier has spent a lifetime promoting health and wellness among Alaska Native people. She saw many young Alaska Native people dying of cancer. She asked why, and after finding no answers, sought ...