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All of Us Research Project Comes to the Y

Maggie Little
Octubre 2, 2018
all of us research program participants

My aunt was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in September of 2017 and quickly had a double mastectomy. In the months that followed she had multiple reconstruction surgeries, received chemotherapy and will possibly be on an oral chemotherapy for years. Her experience has made me think a lot about the treatment options for cancer survivors and the amount of research that has gone into those options.  

Recently I learned about the All of Us research project, which gives me hope that we will continue to have more treatment options for a variety of diseases. The goal of All of Us is to speed up breakthroughs in health research by learning how the differences between us might lead to different types of treatments. 

As part of the Y’s commitment to healthy living, we are partnering with All of Us to host their mobile educational exhibit about their research effort October 2 –5 at our North Kansas City YMCA. Anyone in the greater Kansas City area is invited to come find out more about the transformational approach to medical research, and how you can be part of it.

All of Us seeks to use precision medicine to help providers determine treatment options. All of Us defines precision medicine as, “an emerging approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in lifestyle, socioeconomics, environment and biology.”

In order to further this approach to medicine, All of Us is working to bring together 1 million or more volunteers who reflect the diversity of people living in the United States. Each volunteer will share their health data over at least a decade. All of Us uses the highest levels of privacy and security to build trust with participants who have made the commitment to participate in this important research work. 

Minority populations in the United States are historically underrepresented in medical data and medical research. Participation in All of Us is an opportunity for members of all communities to help medical research, which will benefit all communities for generations to come. 

Learn more about All of Us at allofus.nih.gov.

Maggie Little is Association Senior Healthy Living Director for the YMCA of Greater Kansas City.