This document summarizes the recommendations from the very first national convening of the Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Health Brain Trust on Data & Research held in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 14-16, 2009. There is an urgent need for more baseline data and evidence-based research on the health and healthcare issues of the NHPI population. There are large data gaps regarding the NHPI population in federally funded surveys or studies.

The collective experience and wisdom of all participants resulted in highly informative presentations and insightful discussions. Many actionable recommendations were made during speaker panel discussions and small group breakout sessions. The participants also pointed out that these recommendations are important at both local and national levels. Without change happening at the local level via grassroots populations, the national impact will be low. Implementing the recommendations locally has immediate impact on the AA and NHPI community.