How Alaska Native Communities Transformed Healthcare Through Community Ownership and Engagement Artwork

Relocalizing Health with Dave Chase

While Washington argues and Wall Street profits, a quiet transformation is reshaping healthcare: one community at a time.

Relocalizing Health takes you inside this movement with Dave Chase, founder of Health Rosetta, as he talks with the people leading healthcare's ground-up transformation. Their approach? Keep care local, rebuild trust, and redirect healthcare wasted spending into something that actually serves people.

You'll hear real-world stories from employers, clinicians, and civic leaders who are designing health plans and ecosystems that work, and strengthening their local economies in the process.

Featured guests include:

- Public sector leaders who've redesigned employee health benefits to free up millions for essential services.

- Physicians who've left corporate systems to practice relationship-based care.

- Manufacturing executives using healthcare as a competitive advantage - not a cost burden.

- Civic leaders helping communities reclaim control of their healthcare destiny.

If you care about your community's future and want to see what's actually working in healthcare transformation, this show offers a clear-eyed look at proven models and how to implement them.

All Episodes

Relocalizing Health with Dave Chase

How Alaska Native Communities Transformed Healthcare Through Community Ownership and Engagement

February 16, 2026 • TopHealth Media

0:00 | 52:34

On this episode of Relocalizing Health, host Dave Chase is joined by April Kyle, president and CEO of Southcentral Foundation in Alaska, for a deep dive into one of America’s most remarkable healthcare transformations. Together, they explore how the Alaska Native community took control of their own healthcare system, moving from an underfunded, top-down model to a community-owned system that now boasts some of the best health outcomes and highest satisfaction rates in the world.

April Kyle shares the practical blueprint behind this success: from the generational trauma and distrust that had to be overcome, to the pivotal role of true community engagement and ongoing governance that keeps the transformation alive. The conversation highlights the importance of listening, evolving systems to meet community needs, and the challenges of sustaining change across decades. Listeners will hear inspiring, concrete stories of how community voices are not only heard, but drive real decisions, from scheduling mammograms around moose hunting season to making tough calls about housing for providers.

Whether you’re a community leader, healthcare provider, or simply passionate about building better systems, this episode offers actionable insights and hope for communities everywhere looking to take back control and create a system built for and by them.

Timestamps:

00:00 "Relocalizing Health: Community-Driven Care"

04:18 April Kyle's Introduction & Journey

09:31 "Community-Centered Evolving Healthcare Model"

12:42 "Relocalizing Health, Not Healthcare"

15:20 Listening to Families, Closing Gaps

19:35 "Listening, Dialogue, and Community Partnership"

22:24 "Community-Driven Leadership Challenges"

27:15 Listening to Community First

28:12 "Community-Driven Listening and Customization"

32:49 Community Decision on Housing Safety

36:31 "Clinical Outcomes Data Sharing"

37:26 Community Resource Allocation Dialogue