Leveraging Partnerships to Increase AI/AN Representation through Data

The Native Oral Health Network (NOHN) is dedicated to working towards health equity for American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. NOHN prioritizes primary data collection and sharing available data to display the health disparities, share Tribal innovations, and offer solutions towards oral health equity for AI/AN peoples.
This presentation will focus on four key projects to advance equity through data. First is the process of collecting secondary data and the challenges with comparison analysis with oral health data around several key oral health indicators through the publication of our first comprehensive oral health data report for our service area (OK, KS, and TX). We will also discuss primary data collection efforts through a survey administered last spring and how that data is being used to start conversations about policy change. Finally, we will discuss a current project to examine AI/AN representation in the oral health workforce.
Through these four key data projects, we will be discussing how data are collected and shared, barriers faced in collecting and sharing data, how “othering” is stunting the progress towards achieving health equity, and how NOHN is leveraging partnerships to amplify the work of our Tribal partners.