Symposium Marks ‘All of Us’ Anniversary
On Monday, May 6, the All of Us Research Program commemorates the one-year anniversary of the program’s launch with a symposium—From Data to Discoveries: Creating a Research Program for All of Us—in Masur Auditorium, Bldg. 10, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. The symposium will look at what it has learned so far about building an engaged and diverse participant community and its potential for scientific impact.
All of Us is a historic, longitudinal effort to gather data from one million or more people living in the United States to accelerate research and improve health. By considering individual differences in lifestyle, socioeconomics, environment and biology, researchers will uncover paths toward delivering precision medicine—or individualized prevention, treatment and care—for all of us.
When the program launched on May 6 last year, it was in a style and scope unprecedented for NIH programs. At seven launch events across the country, speakers such as Veronica Robinson, the great-granddaughter of Henrietta Lacks, and Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin were simulcast and livestreamed for a broad viewing audience. Grassroots educational fairs went on at places such as the 50-yard line at Detroit’s Ford Field, in the pews of Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and at Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
In the year that followed, All of Us traveling exhibits visited such places as the Hailey Public Library in Hailey, Idaho, and the annual Zonta Arts & Crafts Festival in Pascagoula, Miss., to spread the word across the country. From Birmingham, Ala., to Pasco, Wash., more than 215,000 registered individuals (as of Apr. 15) of diverse professional interests, ethnic backgrounds, genders, ages and sexual orientations have enrolled with the common goal of advancing precision medicine.
The symposium this year will examine the building blocks of creating a meaningful research program that engages a diverse participant community. Speakers including NIH director Dr. Francis Collins and National Institute on Drug Abuse director Dr. Nora Volkow will discuss the cohort’s and dataset’s potential to affect scientific research. All of Us Director Eric Dishman will acknowledge the successes the program has already realized and discuss the need for continued commitments. Lightning talks by several of the program’s consortium members will cover the critical need for diversity and inclusion in research, the science of engagement, data as a tool for empowerment and how technology can advance research.
Researchers can also learn about the interactive data browser tool, the first of several products for researchers that the program will deliver this year as part of the All of Us Research Hub. The data browser will offer details about participant data using information collected through surveys, electronic health records and physical measurements. A Data Snapshots page will provide a curated set of summary statistics about the All of Us participant community and data.