The circumpolar health movement comes full circle.
OBJECTIVE
Evaluate the course of the International Congress(es) on Circumpolar Health (ICCH) and the Circumpolar movement in the context of concomitant historical events. Make recommendations for future Circumpolar health research.


METHODS
MEDLINE search and historical archive search of ICCH proceedings.


METHODS
Search of all PubMed resources from 1966 concerning the Circumpolar health movement. Two University of Alaska Anchorage archive collections were searched: the C. E. Albrecht and Frank Pauls Archive Collections.


RESULTS
Eleven sets of proceedings manuscripts and one set of proceedings abstracts were evaluated. There was a trend toward consistent use of existing journals with indexing in Index Medicus; shorter intervals between the Congress and proceedings manuscript publication; and increased online availability of either the table of contents or proceedings citations. Recent additions include online publication of full length manuscripts and two instances of full peer review evaluations of the proceedings manuscripts. These trends in proceedings publication are described within the course of significant events in the Circumpolar health movement.


CONCLUSIONS
There has been a trend toward more rapid dissemination of scientific content, more analytic documentation of epidemiologic study design, and a trend toward wider dissemination of scientific content through the Internet. Significant progress in each of those areas is still possible and desirable.
Murphy
Neil J
NJ
Alaska Native Medical Center, Anchorage, AK, USA. nmurphy@southcentralfoundation.com
D000413:Alaska; D001110:Arctic Regions; D035843:Biomedical Research; D003081:Cold Climate; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D014943:Global Health; D017752:Greenhouse Effect; D006293:Health Promotion; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D013997:Time Factors