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About the All of Us Research Program
Far too many diseases do not have proven preventions or treatments. To make a difference for the millions of Americans who suffer from them, we must gain better insights into the biological, environmental, and behavioral factors that drive these diseases. Precision medicine is an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in environment, lifestyle and genes for each person.
As part of the federal Precision Medicine Initiative, the NIH is leading the effort to build a national, large-scale research enterprise with one million or more volunteers to extend precision medicine to all diseases. The All of Us Research Program, formerly known as the PMI Cohort Program, will be a participant-engaged, data-driven enterprise supporting research at the intersection of lifestyle, environment, and genetics to produce new knowledge with the goal of developing more effective ways to prolong health and treat disease. To reflect the diversity of the U.S. population, the program will enroll participants from diverse social, racial/ethnic, ancestral, geographic, and economic backgrounds, from all age groups and health statuses. Information from the program will be a broad, powerful resource for researchers working on a variety of important health questions. Importantly, the program will focus not just on disease, but also on ways to increase an individual’s chances of remaining healthy throughout life.
Informed by a Working Group of the Advisory Committee to the NIH Director, the program has begun building infrastructure and capacity through a series of funding awards and is expected to begin recruiting participants in 2017.