Health is one of the seven areas identified by the UN Development Program (UNDP) as a critical pillar of human security. The human security mindset of health is focused on addressing the root causes of insecurities and strengthening local capacities. Conventional approaches to assessing health security, however, remain dominated by national-level frameworks focused on identifying vulnerabilities of the State as a whole, and not on strengthening the communities that form those systems. This scale is particularly problematic in the Arctic, where a substantial portion of the region’s population is characterized by small, remote communities. The dynamics of health security differ greatly in these communities when compared to health security at the national scale, the nuances of which cannot be captured by conventional national-level health security frameworks. At the same time, maritime traffic is increasing in the Arctic, compounding the health security of the region. More community-level, human-security-minded tools are needed to provide situational awareness, identify existing gaps, and provide baselines for enhancing resilience and capabilities in the Arctic region. With that in mind, the Ted Stevens Center for Arctic Security Studies (TSC) conducted a pilot test workshop to assess the use of human-centered design (HCD) methodologies for identifying community-level indicators of Arctic maritime health security. The workshop identified 55 indicators categorized into 12 themes. Our thematic analysis revealed that existing health security tools are focused largely on indicators relevant to the human medical and public health fields, while the indicators identified in the pilot-test workshop catered more towards a One Health mindset. These findings revealed that HCD methodologies offer a promising, peoplecentered approach towards the development of new tools to assess Arctic maritime health security.
