Chung appointed to the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative

Arlene Chung, MD, MHA, MMCi, will serve as an inaugural member of the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative Cohort Program Institutional Review Board.

Arlene Chung, MD, MHA, MMCi, Diplomate of Clinical Informatics, and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics in the UNC School of Medicine, has been appointed to serve as an inaugural member of the NIH Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) Cohort Program's Institutional Review Board (IRB).

This central IRB will provide oversight and review of the research conducted in the PMI Program. The NIH PMI Cohort Program, which was announced by NIH director Francis Collins at the White House in Feb. 2016, plans to enroll participants representing the diverse social, racial/ethnic, geographies, social environments, and economic circumstances of Americans. This landmark longitudinal cohort study is the largest ever undertaken by the U.S. government, and will collect genetic biospecimens, electronic health record data, mHealth data from wearable devices and apps, and patient-reported outcomes from 1 million participants.

The PMI IRB will oversee many of the new and emerging issues that arise as this initiative seeks to propel our understanding of health and disease, and to improve our ability to prevent and treat disease based on individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and genetics.

As part of the 10 member IRB, Chung will provide expertise in mobile health (mHealth)/digital health and informatics. She is a member of the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center's Outcomes Research Program, the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, the School of Medicine's Program on Health and Clinical Informatics, and the Carolina Health Informatics Program.