NIH opens nationwide enrollment for huge precision medicine initiative

WASHINGTON — A massive precision medicine initiative that has been years in the making from the National Institutes of Health is being rolled out at last.

The All of Us initiative, which will be launched on May 6, aims to compile detailed health profiles of 1 million Americans, with a special focus on communities historically underrepresented in biomedical research.

The program, which began as a pilot last year, is the most ambitious attempt yet to compile health and behavioral data, as well as genetic sequencing, from a representative sample of the American population. It will collect electronic health records, survey data, and even information from its participants’ wearable fitness devices – with the goal of helping scientists better understand how to craft personalized treatments, seen by many as the future of biomedicine.

It’s "science that gets rid of one-size-fits-all medicine," the program’s director, Eric Dishman, said in an interview with STAT.