Every five years the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) Injury Prevention program and Alaska Native Epidemiology Center collaborate with statewide data sources and regional Tribal health organizations to update the Alaska Native Injury Atlas. In March, 2020, the third update of the Atlas was published. Because injuries are the leading cause of death for Alaska Native and American Indian people in Alaska through age 49, tracking the leading causes of injuries and which populations are vulnerable is vital to informing prevention efforts.

The Atlas reports both injury hospitalizations and Injury deaths, with charts and maps that illustrate rate differences by geographic area and over time. Because daily activities and risks in Alaska are different from other US areas, an emphasis was made on the causes of injury of particular interest to Alaskans.

ANTHC Injury Prevention and the Alaska Native Epidemiology Center would like to thank the Alaska Trauma Registry, the Alaska Health Analytics and Vital Records, the Alaska Health Facilities Data Reporting Program, and Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development for providing the data used in the Atlas. We also thank the regional Tribal Health Organizations for their continued efforts in injury prevention, and for the injury prevention success stories included in this Atlas.

---

Crystal Bruns joined the Alaska Native Epidemiology Center (ANEC) in August 2019 as a Biostatistics Intern, where she completed internship duties at both ANEC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Arctic Investigations Program. Initially, her internship was scheduled for 3 months, but was soon extended to 6 months due to the skills and enthusiasm she brought to her work. Her willingness to learn anything and everything she could, and her ability to quickly learn and apply new skills led to an offer of a permanent position at ANEC. In February 2020, Crystal officially accepted the position of Associate Health Statistician, making her ANEC’s newest team member!

 

Q: Why did you apply to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium ANEC Intern position?
A: I knew I wanted a career in statistics and vocalized this with my statistics professor during my last semester at University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). My professor was aware of ANEC’s biostatistics internship and highly recommended I pursue it, so I did.

Q: What are the top 3 things you feel you learned or contributed to ANEC and CDC from this internship opportunity?
A: I expanded my knowledge and capabilities with R Programming, advanced my statistical knowledge and abilities, and I created tools for ANEC and CDC to complete future analysis.

Q: Why did you apply to work at ANEC in a full-time capacity?
A: During my internship, I discovered studying health data was fun and interesting. I also found it rewarding to be a part of a team working to improve people’s lives. I looked forward to contributing to ANEC’s goal every day and wanted to keep being a part of that team.

Q: Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience working at ANEC?
A: This experience has produced a new awareness in understanding data collection, team collaboration, development of health policies and strategies, and more. I also want to share the people that are a part of ANEC’s team made my experience incredible. Thank you for letting me join the team.