Our
work
We believe every indigenous person deserves access to high quality, culturally sensitive dermatologic care, no matter where they live. However, for indigenous tribes across North America, that is not the case.
We work to deliver culturally relevant medicine and care to hard-to-reach indigenous communities throughout North America. In addition to this, we advocate for more culturally diverse curricula and perspectives in medical school training. In particular, we believe it is essential to include indigenous groups into medical school and residency training. We believe by centering indigenous groups in traditional Western-focused curricula and medical training will not only improve the health of the targeted communities, but all U.S. citizens who live in rural areas with little access to specialized medicine.
Basic dermatological care is necessary to live a dignified, healthy life.
For too long, Native American communities have been denied access to specialized medical care. This happens for a multitude of reasons, including distance, cost, and interest from the medical community. And above all, there are few to no dermatologists with culturally relevant backgrounds to serve communities. These barriers multiply to prevent communities from reaching appropriate, safe services.
Our organization focuses on two main areas to break down these barriers to provide respectful, high quality dermatologic care. First, we deliver dermatologic services to communities directly, no matter how far or hard to reach. Second, we work to change how the field of medicine includes and teaches about indigenous skin in medical school curriculum. We know, to make long term, impactful change, we must work through the existing infrastructure of education and medicine in the United States.
Why Indigenous Dermatology?
our focus
Rural Dermatology Delivery
We deliver high-quality, culturally sensitive dermatologic care to rural, remote indigenous communities in the United States.
Advocacy and Education
We advocate for medical schools to include indigenous skin in its curriculum in order to raise awareness about indigenous communities and create a more inclusive health care workforce. We educate by hosting discussion groups and lectures about unique skin conditions that specifically affect indigenous groups.
Our sites
Lake County Tribal
Health Clinic
Indigenous Dermatology aims to address long-standing health care inequities that have disproportionately affected the growth and dignity of indigenous groups in the United States. To do this, we combine biomedical and demographic data with empirical research methods to identify and address how attitudes and policies can work together to support indigenous groups. This work is guided by a social justice lens that centers indigenous groups as the original caretakers of this land.