Adapting a Telehealth Network for Emergency COVID-19 Pandemic Response, 2020-2021.

In March 2020, a Tribal telehealth program-the Indian Country Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO)-added emergency COVID-19 to its programming to support the pandemic response. A long-standing relationship with a network of Indian Health Service, Tribal, and urban Indian clinicians supported a rapid launch of the COVID-19 telehealth program. This nationwide service offered primary care clinicians and staff serving American Indian/Alaska Native people access to virtual learning opportunities, expert clinical recommendations, technical assistance, and capacity building.

A Transparency Checklist for Carbon Footprint Calculations Applied within a Systematic Review of Virtual Care Interventions.

Increasing concerns about climate change imply that decisions on the digitization of healthcare should consider evidence about its carbon footprint (CF). This study aims to develop a transparency catalogue for reporting CF calculations, to compare results, and to assess the transparency (reporting quality) of the current evidence of virtual care (VC) intervention. We developed a checklist of transparency criteria based on the consolidation of three established standards/norms for CF calculation.

Molecular Phylogeny of Dermacentor parumapertus (Acari: Ixodidae) from Two Locations Within Its Geographical Range.

Dermacentor parumapertus Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae) is a rather obscure tick found on jackrabbits in the western United States and parts of Canada and Mexico. Specimens from the northern part of their range are consistently different morphologically from ones found in southern and eastern parts of their range (particularly west Texas), leading some researchers to declare the southern form a variety or subspecies. This study examined field-collected adult D.

Morphometric Analysis of Adult Dermacentor parumapertus Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae) From Various Locations Within its Geographical Range.

Dermacentor parumapertus Neumann (Acari: Ixodidae), a tick primarily associated with rabbits which occurs over much of the western United States, has a fairly large north-to-south distribution, being found from central Idaho southward into northern Mexico. This mostly obscure tick species has recently been the focus of attention due to the discovery of a unique strain of Rickettsia parkeri associated with it which appears closely related to a Rickettsia sp. found in the Atlantic rainforest of Brazil.

Unique Strain of Rickettsia parkeri Associated with the Hard Tick Dermacentor parumapertus Neumann in the Western United States.

In 1953, investigators at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, MT, described the isolation of a spotted fever group (SFGR) species from ticks collected from black-tailed jackrabbits () in northern Nevada. Several decades later, investigators characterized this SFGR (designated the parumapertus agent) by using mouse serotyping methods and determined that it represented a distinct rickettsial serotype closely related to ; nonetheless, the parumapertus agent was not further characterized or studied. To our knowledge, no isolates of the parumapertus agent remain in any rickettsial culture collection, which precludes contemporary phylogenetic placement of this enigmatic SFGR.

Leading causes of death and all-cause mortality in American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Objectives: We present regional patterns and trends in all-cause mortality and leading causes of death in American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs).

Methods: US National Death Index records were linked with Indian Health Service (IHS) registration records to identify AI/AN deaths misclassified as non-AI/AN. We analyzed temporal trends for 1990 to 2009 and comparisons between non-Hispanic AI/AN and non-Hispanic White persons by geographic region for 1999 to 2009.

Methods for improving cancer surveillance data in American Indian and Alaska Native populations.

Background: The misclassification of race decreases the accuracy of cancer incidence data for American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) in some central cancer registries. This article describes the data sources and methods that were used to address this misclassification and to produce the cancer statistics used by most of the articles in this supplement.

Methods: Records from United States cancer registries were linked with Indian Health Service (IHS) records to identify AI/AN cases that were misclassified as non-AI/AN.

A tolloid homologue from the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas.

The genes governing mesoderm specification have been extensively studied in vertebrates, arthropods and nematodes. The latter two phyla belong to the Ecdysozoan clade but little is understood of the role that these genes might play in the development of the other major protostomal clade, the Lophotrochozoa. As part of a wider project to analyze the functions associated with transforming growth factor beta superfamily members in Lophotrochozoa, we have cloned a gene encoding a tolloid homologue from the bivalve mollusc Crassostrea gigas.