He is no newcomer; Dr. Narva was with the Indian Health Service for 25 years (profile) and still affiliated; he is presently the Director of the NIH’s National Kidney Disease Education Program. This short observation from USTelecom’s NextGenWeb is all we could find specifically on his talk. You might find this passage as saddening as I did: ‘Dr. Narva is one of the only doctors using telehealth methods on tribal lands. He uses broadband to connect American Indians on rural tribal lands to doctors and nurses in real time. Healthcare professionals even have access to electronic health records.’ Perhaps some of that $68 million in HHS grant money funding agencies and outreach, not care or means to improving care, could be better spent in this area. Perhaps West Wireless Health Institute, Cisco or USC could work some innovation here. ‘Telehealth in the American Indian Community’.
[For our non-US readers, a quick note on terminology. Steve remarked on the correctness of ‘American Indian’. Some research I’ve done is that both this and ‘Native American’ are controversial, with the latter less accepted nowadays. The governmental and legal term is ‘American Indian’ which was used in the article; Indian Affairs uses this joined with ‘Alaska Natives’. (They do not include Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders.) Tribal names are consistently preferred above all. Ed. Donna]