Health Care Progress for Idaho Tribes

HEALTH CARE PROGRESS FOR IDAHO TRIBES

Guest opinion submitted by Idaho Senator Mike Crapo

The diversity of Idaho's terrain and the varied population density add significant challenges to providing quality health care for everyone. Some metropolitan areas have excellent health care resources, while other rural, less populated areas suffer. With five Native American reservations spread over the state, Idaho tribes face additional difficulties.

It has been demonstrated that Native Americans face increased risk of certain health problems. For example, Native Americans suffer disproportionately higher rates of diabetes, gastrointestinal disease, tuberculosis, breast cancer, and heart diseases. A National Library of Medicine (NLM) program is helping one Idaho tribe find solutions to these health challenges. The NLM Tribal Internship program helps medical professionals bridge cultural hurdles in health care. I was honored to recommend two Idahoans to participate in this program, which will provide better health care to people on tribal lands. Idahoans Tina Bullock and Leland Pond joined other participants to spend a year studying with the National Library of Medicine in Washington, D.C. and Regional Libraries of Medicine. They both work for the Nimiipuu Health facility on the Nez Perce reservation--Tina as a Computer Specialist, and Leland as the Chief Medical Technologist. They work with NLM staff to develop culturally specific programs to improve access to health care information and services. Ultimately, they will develop a health care information access program to be used only on their reservation.

So far, they have trained in Washington, D.C., and Seattle on using medical information systems. It is already making a difference to those on the reservation. As Tina and Leland train others to use the NLM information system, more patients will be helped.

Tina is excited about the program and said, "We are the second tribe to work with the NLM internship and we are breaking ground for an excellent program. With a little work, our program will be a model that can bring better medicine to tribes throughout the country."

Technology plays a major role in the training, and a project using telemedicine holds promise for the Nez Perce interns. Telemedicine is an emerging technology using satellite and telephone technology to bring doctors and patients together over long distances. Through telemedicine, patients who live far away from hospitals and medical specialists can receive care that would otherwise be unavailable. For example, X-rays now taken on the reservation are couriered to a hospital for evaluation. This current process takes up to a week, resulting in delays for patients who are awaiting treatment.

The project that Leland and Tina have proposed would set up equipment that sends a digitized X-ray via the Internet or satellite to specialists for immediate analysis, reducing the amount of time and pain patients waiting for diagnoses now face.

Leland shared this insight: "In the winter, patients from Kamiah often travel icy roads to have X-rays. They often wait a week or more to be properly diagnosed and treated. With the proposed internship project, the time and travel a patient must endure can be reduced. The internship has provided help, resources, and information to put the Nez Perce Tribe on the cutting edge of rural health care." Telemedicine installations like this are an effective way to improve health care in rural areas. As a member of the Senate's Telehealth Steering Committee, I was pleased to introduce the Medicare Telehealth Validation Act of 2002, which would increase federal support for infrastructure and services reimbursements to rural areas. The bill improves telehealth provisions under Medicare and provides grants to develop telehealth networks.

With the help of Tina, Leland, and other medical professionals, telemedicine can be expanded on tribal lands, improving health care. While the internship program has just a foothold in Idaho, it is an invaluable improvement to health care available on the Nez Perce reservation. Improvements like this make a difference in the lives of people. I applaud the efforts of Tina, Leland, and many Idahoans who give beyond what is required to improve the lives of Idahoans. Using technology, creativity, and thoughtful cooperation, we can find on-the-ground solutions that bring high quality health care to people throughout Idaho.