Temple University will join the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Pittsburgh to open an enrollment site for the All of Us Research Program — a momentous effort to advance individualized prevention, treatment and care for people of all backgrounds.

Temple’s effort is part of All of Us Pennsylvania in cooperation with the University of Pittsburgh.

The overall aim is to enroll more than one million participants nationwide, particularly from communities that have been underrepresented in research — making the program the largest, most diverse resource of its kind. Volunteers will join more than 220,000 participants across the United States who have already enrolled in All of Us. People ages 18 and older, regardless of health status, are able to participate.

NIH has funded more than 100 organizations throughout the U.S. to be partners in the program, including Temple and Pitt.

“All of us are unique, but today we live mostly in an era of ‘one-size-fits-all’ medicine,” says Eric Dishman, director of the All of Us Research Program at the NIH. “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 sex or gender.”

Precision medicine is an emerging approach to disease treatment and prevention that considers differences in people’s lifestyles, environments and biological makeup, including genes. By partnering with one million diverse people who share information about themselves over many years, the All of Us Research Program will enable research to more precisely prevent and treat a variety of health conditions.

All of Us 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. Participants will be able to access their own health information, summary data about the entire participant community and information about studies and findings that come from All of Us.

"All of Us will provide a genetic database that will allow us for the first time to understand the relationship between genetics and both the causes and treatments of human disease,” said Arthur M. Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., Laura H. Carnell Professor of Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University (LKSOM) and All of Us Lead Investigator at Temple. “It is a tool that should inform physicians and patients for over a half century into the future. Having a center in North Philadelphia is of particular importance because it will allow us to address an important health disparity — the limited understanding of the genetic basis of disease in minority populations.”

“Each individual participating in this national research effort is making a valuable contribution to scientific discoveries that will lead to better prevention, treatment, and health for all of us and for future generations,” said Susan G. Fisher, M.S., Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Clinical Sciences at LKSOM and All of Us Co-Lead Investigator at Temple. “It is very important that our diverse Philadelphia community, particularly Blacks, Latinos, and other minority groups, join us in this investment in the future health of ALL people.

“The All of Us Research Program will revolutionize how diseases are prevented, diagnosed and treated based on individual differences. By engaging one million Americans nationally, this study will create the largest health research database in the United States to advance precision medicine — an individualized approach to health,” said principal investigator Steven E. Reis, M.D., associate vice chancellor for clinical research, Health Sciences, professor of medicine, and director of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh.

Participants are asked to share different types of health and lifestyle information, through online surveys and electronic health records (EHRs), which will continue to be collected over the course of the program. 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. Participants may also share data through wearable devices (such as Fitbit) and may be asked to join follow-up research studies, including clinical trials.

Also, in future phases of the program, children will be able to enroll, and the program will add more data types, such as genetic data. Ultimately, the All of Us Research program will be a rich and open data resource for traditional academic researchers as well as citizen scientists.

To learn more about the program and how to join, please visit www.JoinAllofUsPA.org.

Notes:

• “All of Us” is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). All of Us Pennsylvania is supported under NIH funding award XXOD123456.
• This study includes participation by the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. It is not a clinical study administered by Temple University Health System or any of its affiliates.