NIH Announces All of Us Research Program to Advance Precision Medicine

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has launched the All of Us Research Program, a nationwide effort to advance individualized prevention, treatment and care for people of all backgrounds.

The NIH aims to enroll more than one million volunteers who will share different types of health and lifestyle information over several years in order to enable research to more precisely prevent and treat a variety of health conditions. Enrolling individuals from communities that have been underrepresented in research will make the program the largest, most diverse resource of its kind.

“The All of Us Research Program is an opportunity for individuals from all walks of life to be represented in research and pioneer the next era of medicine,” said Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, NIH director and an RSNA 2014 special lecturer. “The time is now to transform how we conduct research – with participants as partners – to shed new light on how to stay healthy and manage disease in more personalized ways.”

Participants in the All of Us Research Program will answer questions in online surveys about their overall health and habits and where they live and work. The EHR data will offer useful information related to medical histories, side effects and treatment effectiveness. At different times, some participants will be asked to visit a local partner site to provide blood and urine samples and to have basic physical measurements taken, such as height and weight. In the future, participants may be invited to share data through wearable devices and to join follow-up research studies, including clinical trials.

Currently, only people ages 18 and older, regardless of health status, are able to enroll. In future phases of the program, children will be able to enroll and the program will add more data types, such as genetic data. In addition, data from the program will be broadly accessible for research purposes. Ultimately, the All of Us Research Program will be a rich and open data resource for traditional academic researchers as well as citizen scientists.

All of Us also seeks to transform the relationship between researchers and participants, bringing them together as partners to inform the program's directions, goals and responsible return of research information.

Web Extras

• Access the NIH All of Us Research Program at https://www.joinallofus.org/en