Seeking to include underrepresented communities in the All of Us Research Program, Banner Health and the University of Arizona Health Sciences are enrolling volunteers at nine Banner sites for the historic national effort to improve health and accelerate research.
On May 6, the National Institutes of Health opened national enrollment for the All of Us Research Program, a momentous effort to advance individualized prevention, treatment and care for people of all backgrounds, ages 18 and older, regardless of health status.
Banner Health and the University of Arizona Health Sciences were among the first organizations selected by the NIH to participate in the All of Us Research Program (formerly called the Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program) and have led enrollment as an NIH pilot site since 2017. The original award, planned to total $43.3 million over five years, totaled $8.7 million before it transitioned to the new phase.
The transition to the new $60 million award for the All of Us Research Program will provide the UA Health Sciences-Banner Health partnership as much as $12 million a year through 2023, pending progress and the availability of funds, according to NIH.
The overall aim of the All of Us project is to enroll 1 million or more volunteers nationally and oversample communities that have been underrepresented in research to make the program the largest, most diverse resource of its kind. The effort is part of a new era of medicine to create the most diverse data sets for precision health research to advance knowledge of health and disease. By partnering with 1 million diverse people who share information about themselves over many years, the All of Us Research Program will enable researchers and health providers to more precisely prevent and treat a variety of health conditions.
Precision medicine is an emerging approach to disease prevention and treatment that considers differences in individuals’ lifestyles, environments and biological makeup, including genes. Participants 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.
Volunteers are asked to share different types of health and lifestyle information, including online surveys and data from electronic health records (EHRs), which will continue to be collected over the course of the program. Numerous safeguards are in place to minimize potential risks to data security and participant privacy.
The surveys will cover a range of topics to learn more about participants’ overall health and habits and where they live and work. The EHR data will offer useful information related to medical histories, side effects and treatment effectiveness. At different times over the coming months and years, some participants will be asked to visit a local partner site such as Banner – University Medical Center South to provide blood and urine samples and to have basic physical measurements taken, such as height and weight. To ensure the program gathers information from all types of people, especially individuals who have been underrepresented in research, not everyone will be asked to give physical measures and samples. In the future, participants may be invited to share data through wearable devices and to join follow-up research studies, including clinical trials.
If you are interested in enrolling or learning more about the program at the following statewide partner sites, please call 1-877-268-2684 or visit www.AllofUsAZ.org.
In Tucson:
Banner – University Medical Center Tucson
CATS Research Clinic
1515 N. Campbell Ave.
Tucson
Banner – University Medical Center Tucson North
3838 N. Campbell Ave., Clinic F
Tucson
Banner – University Medical Center Tucson South
2800 E. Ajo Way
Tucson
In Phoenix:
Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix
755 E. McDowell Road, fourth floor
Phoenix
Banner Estrella Medical Center Phoenix
92101 W. Thomas Road
Phoenix
Banner Desert Medical Center Mesa
1400 S. Dobson Road
Mesa
Banner Boswell Medical Center Sun City
Support Services Building/Memorial Hall, Room S108
Sun City
Banner Thunderbird Medical Center Glendale
5555 W. Thunderbird Road, Room 2-090
Glendale
In Casa Grande:
Banner Casa Grande Medical Center
1780 E. Florence Blvd., Suite 108
Casa Grande
In future program phases, children will be able to enroll, and the program will add more data types, such as genetic data. In addition, program data will broadly be accessible for research purposes. Ultimately, the All of Us Research Program will be a rich and open data resource for traditional academic researchers as well as citizen-scientists—and everyone in between.
The University of Arizona-Banner Health All of Us Research Program is supported under NIH funding award OT2OD026549 with previous awards UG3OD023171-01 and UG3OD023171-01S1.
Precision Medicine Initiative, PMI, All of Us, the All of Us logo, and "The Future of Health Begins with You" are service marks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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 (Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Instagram)
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 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: BannerHealth.com