Native Health Database Community Engagement Studios

To meet the needs of multiple stakeholders, the Native Health Database (NHD) has necessarily evolved numerous times since its initial creation in the early 1990s. A recently-funded NNLM-SCR project (January-April 2021) saw the migration of its former platform to one now served through Mukurtu CMS, a database that provides numerous pathways for content creators, Indigenous communities, users, and providers to collaboratively—and respectfully—exchange information. To ensure it continues meeting the needs of its myriad stakeholders, this project will engage the services of UNM’s Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC) and their Community Engagement Studios to understand how best to leverage the outreach tools housed in the new NHD that will be most beneficial for each group. We will invite equal representation from content creators, community members, users/learners, and providers (I.e., clinicians) to participate as community experts. The purpose of each studio is to provide critical feedback about strengths and areas of opportunities of/for the resource. This is especially well-timed as the UNM Health Sciences Library & Informatics Center (HSLIC)—in concert with the Native Health Database Advisory Council—prepares to deploy a robust and wide-reaching outreach and engagement program for the NHD in 2023.