Through a relationship with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), students and faculty at PCOM's three locations are eligible to participate in ongoing studies and develop their own research projects with the All of Us research program.
PCOM researchers will have access to an expansive cohort dataset and unique tools through the NIH research hub in this precision medicine initiative. Winston Price, MD, FACPE, associate professor of pediatrics and director of pathway programs, is coordinating PCOM's access to these research tools.
The All of Us research program, under the direction of NIH Director, Dr. Francis Collins, was launched in 2017 with the mission to enroll one million or more people from across the U.S. to share information about their health, habits and lifestyle. By looking for patterns, researchers may learn more about what factors affect people's health.
The program has already enrolled more than 387,000 participants and covers a diverse and inclusive population. This important effort helps to assure that the data repository contains information from every sector of our population: young and old; sick and well; urban and rural; LGTBQ and straight; physically challenged, blind, deaf; and every racial and ethnic group. By having the weight of numbers and diversity the program can hope to find the answers to improving our population's health and well-being through precision medicine techniques.
Precision medicine is an approach to health care that focuses on developing personalized treatments for patients. Researchers study how differences in lifestyle choices, environmental factors, demographics and genetics can influence a person's risk of developing certain diseases, as well as their response to treatments. Precision medicine aims to provide targeted therapies and medications to patients by understanding their unique characteristics. Through this method, each person's specific medical decisions and treatments can be customized to the individual rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.
The All of Us Research Hub is a gateway to the participant data.
The Research Hub also houses the Researcher Workbench and its suite of custom tools. The Workbench offers access to additional levels of data, workspaces, a cohort builder and an interactive notebook environment.
These tools are available to registered and approved PCOM All of Us researchers subsequent to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Agreement executed by Kenneth Veit, DO '76, MBA, provost, senior vice president of academic affairs and dean.
All of Us is a broad program that can support research on many aspects of health, not just a single medical or biological research question. The data platform enables research that can:
All of Us offers two different access tiers: One for the general public and a second, restricted tier for registered researchers.
Researchers have opportunities to:
The plan for the NIH All of Us research program will be in alignment with PCOM's 2025 strategic plan and the 5-year initiatives of the PCOM research team across all campuses:
Medical student Brianna Hector (DO '26) was selected for an All of Us research project and will look at maternal mortality rates of Black and Latino mothers in the Philadelphia area.
Winston Price, MD, orchestrated the partnership of PCOM with the NIH All of Us Research Program to provide research opportunities for the College community. Faculty members and students will have access to a large cohort dataset and expansive tools within the platform.
Students and faculty interested in participating in All of Us research program opportunities should contact Dr. Winston Price at winstonpr@pcom.edu.
© 2023 Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine