NIH All of Us Research Program
Precision Medicine Research at PCOM
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.
About the All of Us Research Program
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.
What is Precision Medicine?
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.
Our Faculty Researchers
Tools for PCOM Researchers
All of Us Research Hub
The All of Us Research Hub is a gateway to the participant data.
- Use the interactive Data Browser to view public data.
- Data Snapshots are updated regularly and provide visualizations of participant demographics, geographic distribution and more.
- Read about privacy and security processes that help keep participant data safe.
Researcher Workbench platform
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.
About the All of Us Research Program Data Platform
Research support through the All of Us platform
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:
- Increase wellness and resilience and promote healthy living.
- Reduce health disparities and improve health equity in populations that are historically underrepresented in biomedical research (UBR).
- Develop improved risk assessment and prevention strategies to preempt disease.
- Provide earlier and more accurate diagnosis to decrease illness burden.
- Improve health outcomes and reduce disease impact through improved treatment and development of precision interventions.
Access tiers
All of Us offers two different access tiers: One for the general public and a second, restricted tier for registered researchers.
Benefits for researchers
Researchers have opportunities to:
- Save time and resources and accelerate research breakthroughs by accessing:
- a rich data resource, including biospecimens and increasingly robust electronic health records.
- a longitudinal dataset that will follow participants as they move, age, develop relationships, get sick and try treatments.
- a diverse cohort of participants.
- raw data and data that are already cleaned and curated.
- robust computing and analytic tools to support complex data analyses in a secure data environment.
- a group of engaged participants who may be interested in participating in ancillary studies.
- Share workspaces and analyses with research partners and reviewers.
- Learn from the program’s pilots and experiments.
- Leverage innovations of other studies and cohorts.
PCOM Strategic Plan
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:
- Increase the opportunity to build robust research projects for new and seasoned PCOM researchers.
- Increase PCOM researchers input to the NIH Precision Medicine solutions to improving health outcomes.
- Encourage the PCOM community to assist in recruitment of All of Us participants from family, friends and people in the surrounding PCOM campus communities and nationwide.
- Expand opportunities for young researchers to present abstracts, obtain grants and publish articles in peer reviewed journals.
- Establish a framework for mentorship of young researchers.
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.
Contact
Students and faculty interested in participating in All of Us research program opportunities should contact Dr. Winston Price at winstonpr@pcom.edu.