Navajo NARCH - Research Infrastructure Enhancement Project

Dine' College, Tsaile AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section Public health research significantly benefits the Navajo Nation (NN) and its people by helping them understand and address the health concerns that directly affect them. Health research at Diné College (DC) began in 1978 with the topic of Streptococcal infections in children, done in collaboration with the Community Health Representative program of the Navajo Nation Department of Health (NNDOH). In the intervening years, the College and NN, the first by a tribe, both developed Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to review, approve, monitor, and manage research projects being conducted on the NN. Diné College’s IRB reviews and approves DC student, faculty, and staff research projects, and research projects on DC students and personnel by others. The Navajo Nation Human Research Review Board (NNHRRB) is tasked with the responsibility of actively structuring its research approval process to support tribal norms, protocols, uphold sovereign rights, and protect tribal citizens. Systematic assessments of IRBs performance and data management capacity are sparse in the literature, and as the NNHRRB approaches three decades of development, now is an opportune time to assess progress to increase sustainable capacity in years to come. The aims of the RIEP are designed to support the capacity of DC to more effectively monitor research, and organize and manage research data and research products, review the IRB environment and policies of both DC and the NN, and to conduct regular conferences on priority topics and data sovereignty. In Years 1-5, the RIEP will aim to: 1) Develop a technologically advanced data repository at Diné College for research data, including that from projects approved by the DC-IRB, to understand the process and make best-practices recommendations to the NNHRRB; 2) Assess the resources of the DC-IRB and the NNHRRB to better understand their strengths and weaknesses requiring increased infrastructure capacity; 3) Support policy development focusing on health-related research priorities and tribal data sovereignty on NN.