Medical researchers aboard the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen are in remote western Arctic communities this month to continue their work on the first comprehensive survey of Inuit health in Canada.

The Amundsen has been converted to a floating health lab for the Inuit health survey. The icebreaker arrived in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T., on Sunday.

The ship is in the western Arctic hamlet until Tuesday, when it will go to Sachs Harbour, Paulatuk and Ulukhaktok before heading eastward to western Nunavut by month's end.

Inuit and Inuvialuit in those communities are invited to board the ship and answer questions about their health, nutrition, lifestyle and well-being. Researchers also run clinical tests on the participants for health issues such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The entire process takes about three hours for each participant.

"We get an overview that we can't get through the [community] health centres," McGill University professor Dr. Grace Egeland, the survey's principal investigator, told CBC News.

"This can provide information back on priority areas for the future."

2nd year for survey

The Inuit health survey, also known as Qanuippitali? — Inuktitut for, "How about us, how are we?" — began in August 2007, when the Amundsen dropped anchor in 18 coastal communities in Nunavut.

Researchers surveyed 1,214 Inuit adults in the territory's Baffin and Kivalliq regions that year.

This year's survey effort expands to include Inuit living outside Nunavut, including the Inuvialuit of the Northwest Territories and Inuit living in the Nunatsiavut region of Labrador.

"If I live in Paulatuk and I see this ship coming in, the technology is coming to me, rather than I have to go to Inuvik, down to Yellowknife, down to Edmonton to have access to these services," said Inuvik Community Corp. manager Esther Allen, who is helping the survey team.

"I would feel a sense of responsibility to come in and say, 'I want to take part in this survey.'"

Allen said northern health centres are able to treat the ill, but do not always have the resources or time to examine the root causes of illness in the communities.

The Inuit health survey, Allen said, can pinpoint ways that health care can be delivered better in remote northern communities.

"It's not enough to talk about … 'We have high incidents of violence, we have high incidence of people developing diabetes, we have high incidents of sexually transmitted diseases.' This will be the foundation to begin to make changes," she said.

McGill University's Centre for Indigenous Peoples' Nutrition and Environment is leading the $8-million project as part of International Polar Year research. It is being funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, and is also getting federal International Polar Year funding.