BNA Miami President, Patrise Tyson, shared the benefits of signing up with all the attendees. From the projected one million cohort for the longitudinal study, data will be collected on molecular, genomic, cellular, clinical, behavioral, physiological, and, environmental parameters from voluntary research participants. The research study will last at least 10 years through 2025. The collected data will arm health professionals in making disease risk assessment, disease mechanisms and therapeutic strategies through “precision medicine”, an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person. (www.whitehouse.gov/precisionmedicine), (https;//ghr.nlm.nih.gov). The goal of the initiative is to understand why people get sick or stay healthy. The All of Us Research Program will expand the cohort of participants such that findings could help people of the same race, ethnic group, or sex, as represented participants.

 

The realization that most medical treatments have been designed for the “average patient”, fuels the urgency in expanding the cohort of research participants to include diverse ethnic groups. To this end, nurses participating in the seminar are exploring the formation of a Federation of Ethnic Nursing Associations (FENA), to be housed at the RN-BSN Program of Broward College. The objective is to help spread the word on the necessity of widespread participation in the All of Us Research Program. FENA is envisioned to engage in patient empowerment, education about the legal and ethical considerations in research participation, transparency, respect for participant preferences, data sharing, access, and use, and, protection of data quality and integrity.

 

All eligible adults over 18, living anywhere in the United States can join the All of Us Research Program. One does not need health insurance to join, nor be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. One will need a computer or smart phone and an e-mail address to sign up. The participant can share All of Us Research Program information with his/her health care provider. To sign up, visit the All of Us Research Program website www. JoinAllofUs.org, or, download the All of Us Research Program app (iOS version, Android version), or, through a health care organization affiliated with the All of Us Research Program.

 

The All of Us Research Program will advance “precision medicine,” a model which revolves around the idea that a condition, like cancer or heart disease, in you is not necessarily the same as in someone else. The genes from your parents and the environment you live in can influence your health, symptoms you have, and how well treatments might work. Precision medicine is based on the premise that medicine is not “one-size-fits-all”. Crucial elements of precision medicine include multi-omics analysis: pharmacogenomics, how genes affect a person’s response to drugs, proteomics, study of proteins, metabolomics, study of metabolites, genomics, study of deoxynucleic acid (DNA), and ribonucleic acid (RNA), and, inter-professional collaboration among scientists, physicians, nurses, bioethicists, privacy and civil liberty advocates, technologists, data analysts, radiologists and other members of the health care team.

 

Please sign up now to participate in the All of Us NIH Research Program.