# Our Stories, Our Medicine Archives: A Culture Centered Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Health Information Interface for Urban American Indian and Alaska Native and Indigenous Communities

> **NIH NIH G08** · UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY) · 2022 · $140,501

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) and Indigenous populations experience disproportionately high
rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and lack access to reliable health care and health
information. Traumatic stressors such as racial discrimination and disruptions to social and cultural health
traditions are likely to be connected to poor health outcomes including chronic preventable health issues such
as diabetes and CVD. For AIAN populations, this link is especially relevant. Centuries of traumatic events have
contributed to devastating health outcomes in AIAN communities. Over the last several decades, the role of
cultural healing practices has been recognized as an important approach to treating acute as well as chronic
health conditions. However, urban AIANs, approximately 70% of the national AIAN population, often lack either
cultural or medical resources. Access to online health information, however, can positively impact consumer
healthcare both directly and indirectly and offers an opportunity for urban AIANs.
The Our Stories, Our Medicine Archive (OSOMA) seeks to leverage web-based access to health information
by providing traditional indigenous health knowledge information along with widely available evidence-based
and emergent practices for diabetes and CVD specific to AIAN communities. The OSOMA project presents a
novel approach to addressing health disparities in urban AIAN communities through locating diabetes and
cardiovascular disease information within an interactive community-based participatory digital archive that is
created by and for urban AIANs.
We propose 4 specific aims: Aim 1: Form and convene a CAB of health sciences librarians, physicians, AIAN
health experts, and community members to ensure a culturally responsive approach to the archive and
interface design and research process. Aim 2: Conduct content analyses across and within 50 oral history
interviews and corresponding archival materials to create culturally relevant health information modules related
to diabetes and CVD prevention. Aim 3: Design, develop and launch a community-based participatory digital
archive and health information interface centering on traditional indigenous health knowledge about diabetes
and CVD with and for urban AIAN individuals. Aim 4: Evaluate the accessibility of health information content,
usability of the health information modules and interface, and narrative engagement with the archival and
health information materials. Once the interface is launched we will assess the accessibility of content,
interface usability, and the extent to which 100 urban AIAN participants engage with narrative content (e.g.
stories excerpted from oral histories).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10486133
- **Project number:** 5G08LM013186-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF DENVER (COLORADO SEMINARY)
- **Principal Investigator:** RAMONA E BELTRAN
- **Activity code:** G08 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $140,501
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-09 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10486133

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10486133, Our Stories, Our Medicine Archives: A Culture Centered Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease Health Information Interface for Urban American Indian and Alaska Native and Indigenous Communities (5G08LM013186-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10486133. Licensed CC0.

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