Indian Health Service

The mission of the Indian Health Service (IHS) is to raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American Indians and Alaska Natives to the highest level. IHS's goal is to assure that comprehensive, culturally acceptable personal and public health services are available and accessible to American Indian and Alaska Native people. Furthermore, the IHS upholds the federal government's obligation to promote healthy American Indian and Alaska Native people, communities, and cultures and to honor and protect the inherent sovereign rights of Tribes.

The IHS, an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, is responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. The IHS is the principal federal health care provider and health advocate for Indian people, and its goal is to raise their health status to the highest possible level. The IHS currently provides health services to approximately 1.5 million American Indians and Alaska Natives who belong to more than 557 federally recognized tribes in 35 states.

Partnership Activities

Between 1994 and 2003, CDC has provided the IHS with an on-site advisor and liaison. Since 2000, CDC has assigned a medical epidemiologist to the IHS National Epidemiology Program in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Current projects include conducting data linkages between the IHS patient registration database and state cancer registries that are part of the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) to improve classification of American Indians and Alaska Natives in the cancer registries. Similar linkages are being conducted for registries that are part of the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) registry system. The CDC epidemiologist also conducts analyses to improve cancer surveillance in American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities, participates in a statewide initiative to promote the use of clinical preventive services in primary care settings. CDC epidemiologist is also working to adapt the National Public Health Performance Standards Program to AI/AN communities. The purpose of the National Public Health Performance Standards Program is to improve the quality of public health practice and performance of public health systems.

CDC also supports other IHS activities. IHS conducts a Cancer Survivors Support Group Leadership Training Course twice a year; this training is aimed at AI/AN cancer survivors who wish to start support groups in their communities. IHS also trains primary care providers in colposcopy (an examination of the cervix through an instrument to detect abnormal cells), offering both a basic and an advanced course every year. The objective of this training is to make colposcopy services available in remote IHS and tribal facilities, thereby alleviating this barrier to adequate cancer care.

Epidemiology Program
IHS National Programs
5300 Homestead Road, NE
Albuquerque, NM 87110
Telephone: (505) 248-4132
Fax: (505) 248-4393
www.ihs.gov/MedicalPrograms/Epi