Joining the national research effort, 15,000 Arizonans have enrolled as All of Us Research Program participants, supported by local partners Banner Health and the University of Arizona Health Sciences.
TUCSON, Ariz. – With the shared goal of enrolling 1 million or more volunteers nationally in the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program, Arizona has reached a significant milestone of enrolling 15,000 participants.
Nationwide, more than 65,000 people have joined the All of Us Research Program and completed all of the steps in the program’s core protocol for enrollment.
Banner Health and the University of Arizona Health Sciences are partners in the effort, known as the UA-Banner Health All of Us Research Program, and were among the first organizations selected by the National Institutes of Health in 2016 to participate in the All of Us Research Program (formerly called the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program).
All of Us aims to engage a community of participants that reflects the diversity of America, including many people who never have not taken part in medical research. In fact, 82 percent of Arizona participants enrolled to date are from communities historically underrepresented in biomedical research. Arizona participants reflect the rich diversity found within the state, including volunteers of many races, ethnicities, age groups, geographic regions, gender identities, sexual orientations and health statuses.
Nationally, the All of Us Research Program aims to enroll 1 million diverse people to share information about themselves through many years. The data shared by individuals enrolled
in the program will enable researchers and health providers to more precisely and effectively prevent and treat a variety of health conditions.
“This achievement would not be possible without the 15,000 Arizonans, and counting, who have joined this landmark initiative,” said UA-Banner Health All of Us Research Program Principal Investigator Akinlolu Ojo, MD, MPH, PhD, associate vice president for clinical research and global health initiatives at the UA Health Sciences. “We have reached this preliminary goal with their trust and continued support. We also are grateful for the tangible and unflinching support of leadership of both the UA Health Sciences and Banner Health.”
Currently, 12 Banner Health facilities are operating in Maricopa and Pima counties, serving as implementation centers for the UA-Banner Health All of Us Research Program.
“We could not be more grateful to our valued research participants, Banner Health colleagues and University of Arizona partners,” said Eric M. Reiman, MD, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute executive director, Banner Research chief executive officer, UA professor of psychiatry, a UA-Banner Health All of Us Research Program principal investigator and an Arizona State University professor of neuroscience. “We will continue to generate the ‘big-data’ resources needed for researchers to transform ways in which health is promoted and health care is delivered.”
Nationally, the All of Us Research Program is part of a new era of medicine to create the most diverse data set for precision health research to advance knowledge of health and disease. Precision medicine is an emerging approach to disease prevention and treatment that considers differences in individuals’ lifestyles, environments and biological makeup.
Participants are asked to share different types of health and lifestyle information through online surveys and from data from electronic health records (EHRs), which will continue to be collected over the course of the program. Some participants also are asked to visit a clinical site to provide physical measurements and blood and urine samples. Numerous safeguards are in place to minimize potential risks to data security and participant privacy.
In the future, participants may be invited to share data through wearable devices and to join follow-up research studies, including clinical trials. Participants also can access their own health information, summary data about the entire participant community and information about studies and findings that come from All of Us.
If you are interested in enrolling or learning more about the program, please call 1-877-268-2684 or visit www.AllofUsAZ.org.
The University of Arizona-Banner Health Program is supported under the NIH All of Us research funding award OT2OD026549, with previous awards UG3OD023171-01 and UG3OD023171-01S1.
About the University of Arizona Health Sciences
The University of Arizona Health Sciences is the statewide leader in biomedical research and health professions training. The UA Health Sciences includes the UA Colleges of Medicine (Phoenix and Tucson), Nursing, Pharmacy and Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health, with main campus locations in Tucson and the growing Phoenix Biomedical Campus in downtown Phoenix. From these vantage points, the UA Health Sciences reaches across the state of Arizona and the greater Southwest to provide cutting-edge health education, research, patient care and community outreach services. A major economic engine, the UA Health Sciences employs approximately 4,000 people, has approximately 800 faculty members and garners more than $140 million in research grants and contracts annually. For more information: uahs.arizona.edu
About Banner Health
Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns and operates 28 acute-care hospitals, Banner Health Network, Banner – University Medicine, Banner Medical Group, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers and an array of other services; including Banner Urgent Care, family clinics, home care and hospice services, pharmacies and a nursing registry. Banner Health is in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. For more information, visit www.BannerHealth.com or Facebook.
Media Contact: Rebecca Ruiz Hudman, 520-626-1731, rrmcgill@email.arizona.edu