The American University of Sovereign Nations School of Medicine represents a monumental historic opportunity: The creation and development of the first School of Medicine and the first Master of Public Health (MPH) program to be developed on Native American Sovereign Land, dedicated to improving the safety, health, and welfare of Native Americans and indigenous peoples throughout the world. In 2013, AUSN was inaugurated on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community Native American Sovereign Land in Scottsdale, Arizona. AUSN has since relocated from Arizona and is based out of Bangkok, Thailand, with faculty in 40 countries.
The School of Medicine conducts research all around the world, including in the USA, on many aspects of health sciences, including public health, diagnostics, therapeutics, epidemiology, and the associated ethical, social, policy and legal issues. Research carried out by AUSN students, faculty, and research fellows is published regularly. In 2020 we are very active with responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AUSN collaborates with the World Emergency COVID19 Pandemic Ethics Committee (WeCope). A multidisciplinary group of persons from a variety of professional backgrounds who are of cross-cultural and global backgroundwho are independent of government, who are living in different countries under different conditions during the same COVID-19 crisis are tasked with the following:
1) To act as an independent forum to gather accounts of the experiences and perspectives, specially concerning good practices, and alleged human rights abuses.
2) To consider the interface between the theory and practice of ethics around the world and the need for ethical initiatives in research, policy, and information sharing in the world emergency responses and aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.
3) To compile and produce reports and policy statements that may guide individuals, civil society organizations (both non-profit and for-profit), governments, and international entities in their responses to the global health emergencies linked to COVID-19, which have utility both in the current pandemic and further ones.
4) To be of service to those who seek our assistance, and to the most vulnerable among us.
5) To act quickly and issue reports and statements quickly.