Our Future Health collects and links genetic and other health data in an effort to help people live longer and healthier lives.
Our Future Health is now over a fifth of the way towards its goal of recruiting 5 million volunteers, with around 3,000 new people joining every day.
The programme – which brings together the public sector, life sciences companies and leading UK health charities – is creating a detailed picture of health in the UK by collecting and linking genetic and other health data for millions of people.
This will enable researchers to find breakthroughs that help revolutionise the way diseases are detected, treated and prevented. The programme aims to “transform healthcare around the world” and help millions of people live longer and healthier lives.
Dr Raghib Ali, chief medical officer of Our Future Health, said: “From developing the first vaccine to understanding the structure of DNA, the UK has a history of leading the world in health research. Over the last year, it has been hugely inspiring to see people signing up in their hundreds of thousands to help write the next chapter in that story.
“While the breakthroughs of the past were often due to the brilliance of individuals, the breakthroughs of the future will rely on a large group of people who are united by their collective determination to play their part in making positive change. Each one of those million volunteers is contributing to creating a world-leading resource that will lead to discoveries that will save lives.
“But as far as we’ve come in the last year, we have even further still to go. We need another 4 million volunteers before we can fully harness the potential for using health data to make lifesaving discoveries.”
Our Future Health is particularly focused on recruiting volunteers from ethnic minorities and more deprived communities as these have been under-represented in health research in the past.
Our Future Health also now has the largest number of volunteers from more deprived backgrounds and ethnic minority groups of any UK health research programme.
Dr Ali said: “The relative lack of diversity in previous research has meant that those who are most likely to benefit from medical research are also the least likely to take part, further widening health inequalities. Our Future Health is committed to changing that by ensuring that the programme enables everyone to live longer, healthier lives, which is why it’s so important that people of all backgrounds take part.”
Anyone over 18 can volunteer by signing up online. Participants are asked to complete an online health questionnaire followed by a clinic appointment.
At the appointment, which are held in pharmacies and in mobile clinics that travel around the country, volunteers give a blood sample and some physical measurements are taken. They are also offered information about their own health, including their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
In the future, volunteers will be given the option to receive feedback about their risk of some diseases and have the chance to take part in further research studies.
“When we started Our Future Health, we set out to create a health research programme on a scale never seen before anywhere in the world. Hitting one million volunteers over the last year is a truly remarkable achievement and means we’re now rapidly turning that ambition into reality,” said Professor Sir John Bell, chair of Our Future Health.
“And with thousands more people joining every day, we can now be very confident Our Future Health will become the most powerful research tool we’ve ever had to tackle chronic diseases. It will enable discoveries that help us change our health system from one where we mostly treat people who are already sick, to one where we can do much more to stop people becoming sick in the first place.”
Volunteers who don’t live near a location where Our Future Health clinic appointments are currently available can join now and be notified when new clinic locations become available. New locations will be announced on the Our Future Health website and social media channels.
