STS Speaker. Innovation on the Reservation: Information Technology and Health Systems Research Among the Papago, 1965-1980

In May of 1973, an unusual collaboration between the NASA, the Indian Health Service, and the Lockheed Missile and Space Company promised to transform the way that members of the Papago (now Tohono O’odham) Nation of Southern Arizona accessed modern medicine. Through a system of state-of the art microwave relays, slow-scan television links, and mobile health units, the residents of this vast reservation—roughly the size of the state of Connecticut—would access physicians remotely via telemedical encounters instead of traveling to distant hospitals. This paper traces the conflicting and converging approaches of aerospace engineers, Indian Health Service physicians, and tribal leadership in positioning the Papago Reservation as a site for biomedical research, development and innovation. Co-sponsored by the Medical Scientists Training Program.