GUMC’s Bette Jacobs and Lee Bitsoi Present Research at Pathways Into Health Conference

October 23, 2009

Bette Jacobs, dean of the School of Nursing & Health Studies (NHS), and Lee Bitsoi, assistant professor at NHS, attended the fourth annual Pathways Into Health Conference Oct. 7-9 in Big Sky, Mont., presenting their research plan in genomics education to a diverse group of tribal leaders, health care educators and policy-makers. This year’s conference theme was “Achieving Excellence, Harmony and Balance: Innovation Powered by Partnerships to Transform Health Professions Education in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities.”

Jacobs and Bitsoi shared their plans to develop a Center for Indigenous Genomics Education (CIGE) at Georgetown University. Their goal is to strengthen existing tribal based institutional review boards and to establish novel approaches that allow for greater understanding of the risks and benefits of genomic research in Native American studies.

“Dean Jacobs and I are working with colleagues to develop ways in which the scientific community can work more appropriately and effectively with indigenous communities,” Bitsoi said. “The scientific community needs to better understand that the policies and procedures in place to protect indigenous people should not be viewed as anti-scientific, but as pro-indigenous.”

Bitsoi will present the CIGE concept at additional conferences including the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Latinos, Native Americans in Science and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society later this year.

Pathways Into Health is a grassroots collaboration of more than 150 individuals and organizations dedicated to improving the health, health care and the health care education of Native American Indians and Alaska Natives in the nation.

For more information on the Pathways Into Health Conference, please click here.

Submit your news at any time to the GUMC Office of Communications at gumccomm@georgetown.edu.



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