Indigenous Health, Education, and Resources Taskforce (IHEART)

Background

The Indigenous Health, Education, and Resources Taskforce (IHEART), is a national collaborative, formed in 2021 to address the scarcity of American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities in the health professions. IHEART is an AIAN led collaborative consisting of a national coordinating committee and regional networks to amplify, herald, and sustain systems level solutions by uniting allies, organizations, institutions, and communities dedicated to improving AIAN educational and health outcomes. It includes about 350 health professions educators, learners, organizational leaders, and community members who are committed to AIAN communities and workforce diversity.
IHEART operates as a national collaborative body led by the Association of American Indian Physicians, American Indian Higher Education Consortium, Association of Native American Medical Students, Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Indian Health Service. We aim to foster Indigenous-led, culturally responsive networks that can advance systems change to enhance the engagement, matriculation, retention and graduation of AIAN individuals interested in the health professions.

Objectives

1. Develop regional infrastructure to identify educational pathways programs to support and encourage American Indian/Alaska Native students to enter into the health professions workforce;
2. Establish connections within each region to build a network of programs for students and practitioners from kindergarten through practice;
3. Establish a sustainable series of national meetings to support existing and develop new pathways programs;
4. Develop and maintain a map of regional AIAN educational pathways programs;
5. Develop, study, and continually update, a database for demonstrating outcomes from participants in pathways programs, including but not be limited to:
   1. Healthcare profession graduation rates
   2. AIAN healthcare professionals return to AIAN communities, healthcare facilities or academia to address AIAN population health needs and solutions
   3. Successful programs
      1. Demonstrating strategies for what works and what does not.
      2. Creating toolkits/templates to use in creating pathways programs in other communities.

 Partner Organizations

Contact:

Stephanie Dobos (IHEART Program Coordinator) at sdobos@aaip.org

Eric Johnson (IHEART Communications Coordinator) at ejohnson@aihec.org