Precision medicine research with American Indian and Alaska Native communities: Results of a deliberative engagement with tribal leaders

PURPOSE. Amid calls for greater diversity in precision medicine research, the perspectives of Indigenous people, have been underexplored. Our goals were to understand Tribal leaders’ views regarding the potential benefits and risks of such research, explore its priority for their communities, and identify the policies and safeguards they consider essential. This paper reports on participants’ perspectives regarding governance and policy; stewardship and sharing of information and biospecimens; and informed consent. METHODS. Following informal local dialogs with 21 Tribal leaders, we convened a 2.5-day deliberation with Tribal leaders (N=10) in Anchorage, Alaska in June 2019, using a combination of small group and plenary discussion, ranking, and voting exercises to explore perspectives on precision medicine research. RESULTS. Tribal sovereignty was central to participants’ ideas about precision medicine research. Although views were generally positive, provided that appropriate controls are in place, some kinds of research were deemed unacceptable, and the collection of certain biospecimens was rejected by some participants. Differences were observed regarding the acceptability of broad consent. CONCLUSION. Tribal leaders in this study were generally supportive of precision medicine research, with the caveat that Tribal oversight is essential to the establishment of research repositories and the conduct of research involving Indigenous participants.