Recovering frozen water lines in rural Alaska is an unfortunate necessity and a substantial challenge for many communities. ANTHC’s Alaska Rural Utility Collaborative (ARUC) recently implemented a revolutionary hydronic thaw recovery system for the water and sewer utilities in Kotlik and Upper Kalskag. Previous systems often relied on electrical heat tapes which are costly to operate, fail frequently, and burden the community with excessive electrical expenses when left on. The new glycol-based thaw recovery systems uses circulating anti-freeze to convey ...

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 ...

The ANTHC HIV/STD Prevention Program is excited to announce a new multimedia educational campaign free to people and communities in Alaska – Safe in the Village. Safe in the Village is a culturally relevant video program to help open up conversations about healthy relationships and safe behaviors with Alaska Native youth. The program was developed for youth ages 15-19 but is also suitable for middle-school aged youth. The Safe in the Village program has two components: 1) A 30-minute movie ...

This week, Aleutian Pribilof Island Association (APIA) joins ANMC and other Tribal health partners on the shared Cerner electronic health record system. Four APIA clinics went live, including their largest one in Unalaska. The shared electronic health record helps improve patient care through increased communication between our organizations and providers. An ANTHC-led team of health information technology professionals were on hand to deploy the new Cerner system and provide support to APIA staff as they continue to see patients during ...

This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Rural Development (USDA-RD) announced several grants and loan funding for rural Alaska communities and organizations to address rural sanitation issues. ANTHC is among the grantees, as well as many of our Tribal health partners, which total $27 million in USDA-RD Water and Environmental Programs funding. The funding ANTHC received will support sanitation projects in Adak, Akiak, Chignik, Eek, Golovin, Hydaburg, Kasaan, Kiana, Kivalina, New Stuyahok, Oscarville, Port Graham, Saxman, Teller, Toksook Bay and Twin ...

Beginning in 2015, with a funding award from the National Cancer Institute, the Community Health Aide Program (CHAP) cancer education team launched a series of interactive, online cancer education modules (CHAP Distance Learning Network releases new cancer education modules) to address a need for accessible cancer education in rural Alaska. The education program has continued to develop and rollout engaging learning modules as they are completed. The ninth module, “Tobacco and Cancer,” was recently released; the final module “Eating Well, ...