All of Us Research Program
Disclosure: The Brentwood Public Library received funding through a grant from the National Library of Medicine to provide educational programming for Citizen Science Month in April of 2021. As a part of that grant, the library was asked to raise awareness about the "All of Us" research program.
The "All of Us" Research program, by the National Institutes of Health, is aimed towards creating the most diverse health database in history. Participants may submit their health information to contribute to this growing database, to help better understand different health issues across all types of people. You may choose how much of your information to contribute, and you can opt out of the program at any time.
The program allows you to submit as much data as you feel comfortable with, and after an in-person physical with one of their specialists, you will be able to view various information about yourself.
This is some of the information that the program will ask you to submit with their physical, once you find one of their "All of Us" partners to visit an in-person site. There are many sites still being added, so you may wait until they have a location within traveling distance. You can bring this data to your physicians as well if they discover any abnormalities with your results.
In order to participate in the program, you will need to fill out multiple consent forms to the extent you are willing to participate. Again, you may opt out of these services at any time.
The process may take some time to complete, but you can save your progress and return at any time to continue to fill out your information and read through the consent forms. The "All of Us" program makes every effort to inform you of what exactly you are consenting to, and what they will use your data for.
The program also allows for users to share data directly from their Fitbit to the program website to aid in the collection of health data.
If you have any questions or concerns the program offers a comprehensive learning center, to help you understand how the program collects your data, and how they will use the data that you give them.
The more information that you give to the program, the more information they will be able to tell you about your body, from health issues to your DNA sequence.
The "All of Us" program is a worthwhile endeavor for understanding different diseases and abnormalities within different people. This research will be used to also understand how different backgrounds and lifestyles to help find ways to prevent and treat different diseases discovered through the program.
For more information on the program follow this link to their website below.
If you would like to sign up for the program, follow the link below.