Syndromic Surveillance in Tribal Health: Perspectives from Three Tribal Epidemiology Centers on Access and Utilization

Syndromic surveillance has evolved into a vital public health tool, providing near real-time data to detect and respond to health threats. While states administer syndromic surveillance systems, Tribal Epidemiology Centers (TECs) serve American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities across multistate regions, often encountering significant barriers to data access and utilization. This manuscript explores how TECs access and use syndromic surveillance data to address health disparities in AIAN populations, highlighting successes, innovations, and ongoing challenges. The Alaska Native Epidemiology Center (ANEC), Great Plains Tribal Epidemiology Center (GPTEC), and Northwest Tribal Epidemiology Center (NWTEC) provide insights into their syndromic surveillance practices. This includes data access methods, the creation of dashboards and reports, technical assistance for Tribal Health Organizations (THOs), and strategies for overcoming jurisdictional and data-sharing barriers. TECs have successfully leveraged syndromic surveillance to monitor critical health issues, including respiratory illnesses, substance misuse, behavioral health, and maternal care. Collaborative efforts have addressed race misclassification and data gaps, enabling targeted interventions such as air purifier distribution and improving health care delivery for tribal veterans. However, TECs can face restrictive data use agreements, jurisdictional misalignments, and limited access to granular data, hindering their ability to serve AIAN communities comprehensively. Syndromic surveillance offers transformative potential for improving public health in AIAN communities. To fully realize this potential, systemic changes are needed to streamline data-sharing agreements and improve data accuracy. These efforts, along with strong collaborations between TECs and state health departments, are critical to advancing health equity, respecting tribal sovereignty, and ensuring timely, actionable insights for AIAN populations.