Health researchers from around the world discussed some unexpected themes during the 14th International Congress on Circumpolar Health, which wrapped up Thursday in Yellowknife.

One new topic in particular, food security, came up during the week-long conference of scientists and academics discussing circumpolar health, organizer Pamela Orr said.

Food security means "people's right to have access to healthy foods," Orr said Thursday.

"That was an overwhelming new topic in this congress; there was tremendous interest. So there's never been that kind of energy before about nutrition and food."

The congress's official theme was about turning research into action. This year saw the end of the two-year International Polar Year program, in which scientists conducted studies about climate change and related topics in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

Orr said she and other congress organizers will continue addressing that theme at the next circumpolar health congress, slated to take place in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 2012.

Hundreds of delegates from Canada, the United States, Russia, Scandinavia and other northern nations gathered in the N.W.T. capital to discuss the effects of everything from climate change to economic development on the health of northern peoples.