March 31, 2023
The Institute for Rural Health Research is participating in a nationwide research program that seeks to change the way medicine is practiced and biomedical research is conducted in the future, Dr. John C. Higginbotham, the institute’s founder and director said during a Mini Medical School presentation in March.
The All of Us Research program is part of the National Institutes of Health’s efforts to expand research into what is known as precision medicine – an emerging approach to disease treatment and prevention that considers differences in people’s lifestyles, environments and biological makeup.
The Institute for Rural Health Research is part of the College of Community Health Sciences. The Institute participates in the Southern All of Us Network, which is led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The goal of the All of Us Research program is to enroll 1 million or more people nationwide. To take part of the program, participants can go online to joinallofus.org and create their account, give their consent, agree to share their electronic health records, answer health surveys, have their measurements taken (height, weight, blood pressure) and give blood and urine samples, if asked. After completing these steps, participants will receive a $25 gift card.
Higginbotham explained that the All of Us Research study is gathering information about ways to prevent chronic pain and develop less addictive pain medications, develop better ways to treat and prevent diabetes, develop better cancer treatments, and to drive sustainable interventions that support health equity. Health equity is when everyone has a fair and equal opportunity to live the healthiest life possible.
Precision medicine is “the right treatment for the right person,” Higginbotham said. “The unique part about this program is that it’s open for everybody. People can go online and look at their data to do their own analysis. Our goal is to look at the diversity of a scale of 1 million people or more and focus on the participants as partners.”
Mini Medical School is a series of lectures provided each semester to The University of Alabama OLLI program by faculty of CCHS.
