COVID-19 Response Supplement - Project Abstract Since 1996, the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., Tribal Epidemiology Center (ITCA TEC) has provided services to American Indian Tribes in Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. The ITCA TEC through the Indian Health Service (HIS) Cooperative Agreement has been working with Phoenix-Tucson Area Tribes in order to build local capacity for outbreak response under Objective 5, Maintain outbreak response capacity to include infectious diseases outbreaks and other public health emergencies in coordination with Tribes, IHS, State, local and other federal health authorities appropriately, in a timely manner. Under this objective, the ITCA TEC has assisted Tribes, states, IHS, and other partners in a number of outbreaks, including: H1N1, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Zika Virus, Opioid response, and most recently, Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE). The ITCA TEC is a designated Public Health Authority and supports Tribes along with other partners based on their specific needs. As part of the Zika virus, RMSF, and EHE the ITCA TEC has provided sub-awards to Tribes to complete a specialized scope of work in order to best meet their local needs. Several of these projects have included a strategic planning component to support Tribes with public health accreditation processes. Recently, the ITCA TEC has also been working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in order to Build Tribal Public Health Infrastructure in the region. Under this award, the ITCA TEC also provides sub-awards to Tribes for a specialized scope of work in a number of project areas, including, RMSF, data quality improvement, diabetes, opioids, and others based on Tribal need. As part of this project, the ITCA TEC has held strategic planning sessions, and worked with Blue Stone Strategy Group, LLC, to design a Tribal Opioid Response Strategic Planning Toolkit. As part of this work, we have also piloted public health quality improvement activities to support public health accreditation processes with the Public Health Foundation. As part of this pilot, the ITCA TEC is also working on internal quality improvement areas as well. The most recent funding and partnership opportunity with CDC, Center for State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support (CSTLTS), Tribal Public Health Capacity Building and Quality Improvement Umbrella Cooperative Agreement would provide much needed support the ITCA TEC and Tribes during the Corona Virus 2019 (COVID-2019) global pandemic. ITCA TEC will focus on both internal ITCA infrastructure and building Tribes local epidemiologic capacity to enhance existing emergency response, including infectious disease case investigation mechanisms. As part of this project, in summary, ITCA TEC plans to: provide Tribal sub-awards, improve existing regional infrastructure for data sharing and data quality, assist Tribes with infectious disease public health quality improvement, and assist the region with COVID-2019 After Action activities.
