If we only knew enough about the lives and health of enough people, we could derive all the information we’d need to know to predict and prevent many diseases, and to improve treatments and outcomes. That’s the promise of Big Data, and many people subscribe to this vision. The problem is, where will we get all this data? We’ve already mentioned Verily’s “Project Baseline,” which is being run by a division of Alphabet, the parent company of Google.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has its own data collection program underway. The “All of Us” campaign has the ambitious goal of enrolling 1 million participants in a longitudinal study of health, lifestyle, and environment. The data will be made available to qualified researchers who are investigating a range of health-related topics. The program has entered its beta testing phase, which will eventually include 10,000 participants across the country. They are starting with a single testing site, and will expand to 100 sites nationally. This slow ramp up is designed to make sure that all the systems operate as intended before the data collection starts in earnest. The major roll-out is expected for the end of this year or early 2018.
The program is open to adults over 18 throughout the U.S. If you’re interested in volunteering, you can click on this link to find out more details.
You stated: “if we only knew enough . . . outcomes” in your message.
I have an idea to supply you with all of the information about the lives, health (care) and more of the people that have information in an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record (EHR) system or anyplace else that it is or can have electronically stored data. Besides being able to predict and prevent many diseases along with being able to improve treatments and outcomes it’ll be able to affect almost every industry including Healthcare costs and increasing the revenue of the IRS with thousands of jobs.
Essentially it will provide all of the information needed by the appropriate people (providers, patients, etc.) to “Enhance the Quality of Life’ (EQL) and stabilize the economy (increase productivity) with no adverse affect on the current and future players.
What do you (NIH) mean by ‘longitudinal’ study? I assume that the study and data will be (or can be in the future) help patients and providers my making it easier to convert to a “Fee for Value’ payment systems.
I agree with you as far as a slow ramp up but my idea might be able to make it faster. You would not be collecting data because you would be using data that is currently being collected and will be collected in the future.
You would just have to add ‘logic’ (and test) to use the data differently and/or use the new data that is added in the future to provide the needed information as it is requested. You do NOT want to collect data now and collect more data later (to meet new user requirements) which will require reworking the system.
I am very much interested in your effort because I hope and plan to develop a “Virtual Augmentative (which won’t be destructive) Nutritionist” (VAN) to make info available to people to assist them to live healthier, longer and much happier lives. The VAN will use Pharmaceutical, Environmental, Medical, Fitness, Dietetic, Ingredient, Coding (ICD) Nutritional, and probably many other types of information.
I also have an idea to limit the changes, make it easier to make them and generally increase productivity.
Please contact me as soon as possible and I will be glad to share my ideas with you to hopefully help to implement and make this world better. I do NOT want the same thing to happen with ‘Century Change’ (“Y2K”) or what’s occurring with all of the EMR systems in that they aren’t able to work with each other. .
In addition, I have worked with both of these situations and have other experiences that might help to move Healthcare into the twenty-first century. I consider my self a Productivity specialist and a man ahead of his ‘behind’ (please excuse the language) because of what I accomplished and when. I was instrumental in reducing an estimate from 720 to 360 person years and I did this working in “Y2K” starting twenty-file years before the problems could have started to occur. In addition, the VAN should be part of a ‘food replicator (think of the Jetsons) in outer space.
I’ve also helped to develop the Connecticut Valley chapters of the International Holistic (and Eco-friendly) Chamber of Commerce. In addition, I am an avid networker that is involved with startups, businesses, and most importantly Benefit Corporation (Social Enterprises) especially incorporated with a ‘legacy clause’ which only exists in the state of Connecticut. .