Northwest Portland Tribal Registry Project

Over the last 10 years, health care delivery for Northwest American Indians and Alaska Natives has evolved from a centralized system maintained by the Indian Health Service (IHS) to a diverse and complex environment. The Northwest Tribal Registry Project was developed in January 1999 by the Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center, a tribally operated program located at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) in Portland, Oregon.

Through an interagency agreement with the IHS, the existing disease registry has begun to do record linkage studies with state vital statistics data. The goal is to allow ascertainment of the incidence and prevalence of diseases such as cancer among Northwest American Indians and Alaska Natives with an accuracy not previously possible. A critical difference between the Northwest Tribal Registry Project and previous linkage studies is the longitudinal focus on building trend data.

The NPAIHB is a recent recipient of a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences/IHS collaborative program, Native American Research Centers for Health (NARCH), intended to encourage research on diseases and health conditions of importance to American Indians and Alaska Natives. A recent publication details the results of the record linkage:

Becker TM, Bettles J, Lapidus J, Campo J, Johnson CJ, Shipley D, Robertson LD. Improving cancer incidence estimates for American Indians and Alaska Natives in the Pacific Northwest. Am J Public Health 2002;92:1469-71.