The mission of the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health (CAIH) is to work in partnership with American Indian tribes to raise the health status and self sufficiency of American Indian people to the highest possible level. This mission is accomplished through three core activities: 1) research, 2)service, and 3) training.

Research
Biomedical Research
In the early 1970s, Johns Hopkins started its work with tribes to address widespread untreated diarrheal disease, which was killing Indian infants at rates seven times the national average. Working with the White Mountain Apache, a Johns Hopkins team introduced Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT), the first use of the therapy in the U.S.  In the early 1980s, Mathuram Santosham, MD, MPH, began to employ a reservation-based strategy that trained Native outreach workers to make home visits to teach parents about proper use of ORT. Rates of diarrheal deaths among the participating tribes (Apache and Navajo) dropped virtually to zero. In 1991, Dr. Santosham founded the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health (CAIH) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. A hallmark study undertaken by the Center in the early 1990s proved the efficacy of a new vaccine that has virtually eliminated pervasive death and disability from Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib)--a bacterial disease that causes life-threatening meningitis. Current focus is on addressing pneumococcal disease, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and hepatitis A--major threats to Indian youth, as well as to children in developing countries.

Behavioral Health Research
CAIH's behavioral research and interventions have been developing since the early 1990s. Projects have included studying the behavioral and environmental determinants of priority health problems, including: suicide, alcohol abuse, teen pregnancy, and high school drop out. Most recent work involves the evaluation of locally produced mass media campaigns on behavioral targets, and studying the impact of a treatment/control intervention for family strengthening for a constellation of behavioral health problems.

Native Vision Program - Promoting Health and Life Skills to Adolescents
In 1996, Johns Hopkins partnered with the NFL Players Association and the Nick Lowery Charitable Foundation to launch the Native Vision Program. The Native Vision program is designed to promote three major areas of well-being for participating children and families: Healthy Minds, Healthy Bodies, and Healthy Families. Each program area features year-round school, community and home-based activities. In addition, an annual camp led by professional athlete-mentors attracts 500 Native children and thousands of community members, reinforces programmatic goals, and raises national awareness.

Training
The CAIH's existing training programs include:

• An endowed fellowship that brings up to five Indian scholars to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health each summer to study public health sciences.
• Intensive workshops taught on reservations by Johns Hopkins faculty on public health sciences and health intervention planning.
• Workshops for high school students in media development, giving youth a voice to promote positive peer identity through video, radio, photography, and print production.
• A graduate-level distance education course, which is a survey of American Indian Health.

Current efforts are focused on recruiting more American Indians to receive professional training in health sciences.

Facilities and Personnel
The Center's administrative headquarters is in Baltimore, Md., at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is directed by Mathuram Santosham, MD, MPH. The Center's placement within the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions allows us to draw on vast intellectual resources and multi-disciplined approaches to address tribes' priority health and social problems. The Center currently operates 11 health stations on the Navajo (NM/AZ), White Mountain Apache (AZ), and Wind River (WY) Reservations, whose combined populations represent approximately one-fourth of American Indians living on reservations in the United States. Over the past five years, the Center has conducted additional projects with tribes in North Carolina, California, South Dakota, Alaska, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.  More than half of the Center's 70-person staff is American Indian, including an American Indian physician, more than 30 Native outreach workers, and 4 field-based project coordinators.

For more information about the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health, please call 410-955-6931 or contact Allison Barlow at abarlow@jhsph.edu .