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 affects 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.
Tools for PCOM Researchers
All of Us Research Hub
The All of Us Research Hub is a gateway to the participant data.
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.
Contact
Students and faculty interested in participating in All of Us research program opportunities should contact Dr. Winston Price at winstonpr@pcom.edu.