title: Indian health service innovations have helped reduce health disparities affecting american Indian and alaska native people.
abstract: The Indian Health Service (IHS), a federal health system, cares for 2 million of the country's 5.2 million American Indian and Alaska Native people. This system has increasingly focused on innovative uses of health information technology and telemedicine, as well as comprehensive, locally tailored prevention and disease management programs, to promote health equity in a population facing multiple health disparities. Important recent achievements include a reduction in the life-expectancy gap between American Indian and Alaska Native people and whites (from eight years to five years) and improved measures of diabetes control (including 20 percent and 10 percent reductions in the levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and hemoglobin A1c, respectively). However, disparities persist between American Indian and Alaska Native people and the overall US population. Continued innovation and increased funding are required to further improve health and achieve equity.
authors: Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women' s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors: Thomas D
authors: TD
authors: Sequist
authors: Theresa
authors: T
authors: Cullen
authors: Kelly J
authors: KJ
authors: Acton
mesh_terms: D000413:Alaska; D003469:Culture; D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology*; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American; D008017:Life Expectancy; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D016549:United States Indian Health Service / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data