One of the biggest health research programs in the world will include at least three million Britons.
The Our Future Health research wants to create new techniques to identify diseases sooner by using the vast volumes of data it has collected.
Participants are asked to provide their permission to collect DNA and blood samples over an extended period of time.
It is believed that the findings may aid physicians in making better predictions about who is more susceptible to conditions including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and stroke.
The goal is to create new techniques for “early diagnosis or preventative tactics across a huge population of individuals – perhaps between three and five million people,” according to Professor Sir John Bell, head of Our Future Health.
People over the age of 18 who reside in West Yorkshire, the West Midlands, Manchester, and London will get invitation letters.
Pancreatic cancer is one condition that might benefit from the research since it is often discovered when it is too late, when it is difficult to cure and can be deadly.
Over the next three years, up to five million adults over the age of 18 will have the chance to sign up for Our Future Health.
Participants’ health information will be collected, anonymized, and securely stored. But in the future, volunteers will have the choice to get information about their health, such as their risk of contracting common illnesses, based on their health data and analysis of their data.
The program will “enable us to learn more about a broad variety of illnesses, including pancreatic cancer, and investigate the signals present in blood samples even many years before diagnosis,” according to Dr. Chris MacDonald, Head of Research at Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Since over 80% of those who are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer do so at its advanced stages, this is quite interesting for researchers like us.
People over the age of 18 who reside in the four areas of West Yorkshire, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and Greater London will get invitation letters for the program this fall.
Volunteers must agree to participate in the study program, provide secure access to their health information, fill out an application, schedule an appointment to give a brief blood sample and have some physical measures taken, and give their permission.
People who have historically been underrepresented in scientific research, such as those from Black, Asian, and other ethnic origins and those with lower incomes, will also serve as volunteers.
Our Future Health’s chief medical officer, Dr. Raghib Ali, said: “One of the things we weren’t able to accomplish (in the past) was recruit enough non-Europeans, so (for) persons of South Asian and Black groups, we didn’t have enough numbers to look at illnesses in those populations.
For the first time, we will be able to accomplish it on a large scale thanks to “Our Future Health.”