The National Institutes of Health will open national enrollment next week for its All of Us research program, aiming to collect health data from at least one million volunteers across the country.
The project, which has been in beta for the last year, will request health and lifestyle data from volunteers using online surveys and electronic health records.
The agency’s goal is to create a database of information that can be used by researchers and citizen scientists alike to better understand how individual differences impact disease. Volunteers will be able to access their own data, as well as summary data for the whole participant community.
“All of us are unique, but today we live mostly in an era of ‘one-size-fits-all’ medicine,” Eric Dishman, director of the All of Us program, said in prepared remarks. “I’m alive today because of precision medicine and I think everyone deserves that same opportunity no matter the color of your skin, your economic status, your age or your sex or gender. In other words, it will truly take all of us.”
“NIH’s unprecedented effort will lay the scientific foundation for a new era of personalized, highly effective health care. We look forward to working with people of all backgrounds to take this major step forward for our nation’s health,” Health & Human Services secretary Alex Azar added.
