ITV/Telehealth Lecture on Native Medicine: Post-event Recap

Johnson Dennison, MEd

TSAILE,AZ--Over 50 students from UNM and Diné College participated in a lecture on Native Medicine via Telehealth and Interactive Television on Monday, April 23rd, 2012. The lecture by Mr. Johnson Dennison, a Diné (Navajo) Medicine Man and retired coordinator of the Office of Native Medicine, was streamed live from the Diné College (DC) Tsaile campus to 6 sites that included the UNM HSC and the UNM Main Campus as well as the Tuba City and Shiprock campuses of DC.

The lecture was a part of a recent joint project between CNAH, the UNM HSC Center for Telehealth and Cybermedicine Research, and the Science Division of Diné College and is funded by an Indians into Medicine (INMED) grant from the Indian Health Service (IHS). The goal of the Telehealth/ITV initiative is to develop a virtual bridge through telehealth communications between the faculty, staff, and students of Diné College and the UNM HSC/CNAH for the purpose of expanding access to health-related knowledge and research including Indigenous wisdom, cultural knowledge, and career options in health.

Mr. Dennison shared his experience in integrating Western and Native Medicine at the Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility on the Navajo Nation by recounting personal stories, many of them humorous, of working with non-Native Medical Providers and Navajo patients alike and stated that "in Navajo communities, Western Medicine is the alternative medicine--not the other way around."

The lecture was streamed live from Diné College Tsaile.

The audience at Domenici Center West at the UNM HSC.

 The lecture will be available for online streaming later this month. To download a PDF of Mr. Dennison's PowerPoint slides, please visit the CNAH website - "Media and Downloads" page.

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For more information about the CNAH INMED Telehealth Project, contact Nathania Tsosie (Native Community Health Planner).