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Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) (Oregon)

Current Assignee: Since July 2004, there has been an assignee with the Northwest Portland Indian Health Board (NPIHB) in Portland, OR. Prior to that, the assignee was assigned to the Indian Health Service National Epidemiology Program.

Projects/Impact:

• A survey to assess Tribal MCH programs: Assessment of maternal child health program changes, review of the policy change leading those changes, and evaluation of the impact of the policy change will be part of the overall study design to be conducted by IHS. Development of and piloting a survey instrument to document MCH services at the tribal level is being completed 2004. IHS does not usually have the option of surveying these programs since most of them are non-IHS and are currently Tribal programs.
   
• Research in American Indian Communities Monograph: Conducting research in American Indian and Alaska Native communities requires extensive knowledge of the community and its norms including cultural and tribal issues. Ms. Randall arranged a contract with AHRQ for members of the Native Research Network, Inc. (under the auspices of the Association of American Indian Physicians for contracting purposes) to give a workshop on conducting effective and culturally sensitive research among American Indian and Alaska Native populations. From this presentation, a monograph has been written. The monograph is being presented to AJPH for publication December 2004.
   
• FAS Project. This project has been in existence for the past four years and has six Tribal pilot sites. They will be talking to the tribes about doing a pilot surveillance project in the future. The Northwest Tribal Epi Center Executive Director asked Ms. Randall to take over as contact for the consultants. She will be working with them to develop their educational manual, develop other proposals to fund their project, and oversee any new initiatives in this area.
   
• TOTS project. Ms. Randall worked with Tam Lutz, MPH, MS to develop new grant proposals. This has been a team effort with Kaiser Center for Health Research, Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) and the NPAIHB Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center.
   
• Infant Mortality project. Ms. Randall will be working with Katrina Ramsey to update the current database that Dr. Jim Gaudino started a few years ago. New data has come in and we will start analysis early 2005. Dr. Gaudino has committed to helping with this project and to have some data analyzed for next years MCH Epi conference.
   
• Other duties: The Northwest Epi Center Director wants Ms. Randall to mentor different individuals within the Epi Center. This will involve helping write grant proposals, helping with publications, working with their training programs, deciding on statistical analysis strategies for their projects and helping them further their educational goals. Ms. Randall has also been asked by One Sky Center at OHSU and the Public Health Program at OHSU to serve as adjunct faculty for their programs. Ms. Randall is also working with the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI), Seattle Indian Health Board, in Seattle WA to develop a consortium of individuals interested in infant health as part of the MCH grant the UIHI received from IHS for 2005.

Grants applied for:

• Primordial Prevention of Overweight in AI Children (PTOTS) project. This is a proposal submitted under the Community Responsive Interventions to Reduce Cardiovascular Risk in American Indians and Alaskan Natives RFA issued by the National Institute of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and aims to test the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to promote healthy life styles and to promote behaviors associated with reduced risk of cardiovascular disease in American Indians through primordial prevention interventions in children 0-3 years of age. Dr. Njeri Karanja, from the Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, will serve as Principal Investigator (PI). Ms. Randall will serve as the NPAIHB Site PI for this project. The proposal was submitted October 20, 2004 to NHLBI.
   
• Tribal Wisdom To Empower Exercise And Nutrition Study (TWEENS). This proposal is being submitted under the Prevention and Treatment of Childhood Obesity in Primary Care Settings, RFA-HD-04-020. This study will implement a two-year study to test the effectiveness of a youth-oriented health intervention to promote healthy life styles and behaviors associated with reducing childhood obesity for ages 9–12. Ms. Randall will serve as the PI for this project. This project is also designed to provide mentoring to Ms. Tam Lutz, a Native Trainee for the NARCH grants, on intervention studies. The proposal was submitted November 22, 2004.

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Page last reviewed: 2/8/08
Page last modified: 3/6/06
Content source: Division of Reproductive Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion