UAMS Employees, Public Join National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program during Exhibit Tour
| The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) hosted the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) All of Us Journey, a traveling research exhibit, Nov. 12 – 15. The interactive exhibit drew 120 visitors, with 40 people enrolling in the NIH’s All of Us Research Program before the tour left Little Rock.
Among them was Robin Camp, a registered nurse at the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute.
The All of Us exhibit drew 120 visitors during its four-day stay at UAMS.
“I saw the opportunity in the UAMS announcements, and I was interested in participating immediately,” said Camp, who works in the Clinical Trials Office at the Cancer Institute.
She and her co-workers visited the exhibit to learn more. She said they were especially interested to hear how the research program is looking for biomarkers that will indicate which medications will work best for individuals.
“So many times, as an oncology nurse, we see some patients not respond to treatment while others get a complete response,” said Camp, who worked as an oncology nurse for five years before joining the Clinical Trials Office. “What if, by a simple blood test, we could determine which therapy will work the best for someone? This could potentially alter health care for everyone.”
The All of Us exhibit visits communities across the United States, featuring interactive activities, videos, games, quizzes and more — all designed to demonstrate the power of participation in health research.
The All of Us Research Program aims to speed up health research and medical breakthroughs. To do so, All of Us is asking 1 million or more volunteers to share different types of health and lifestyle information — such as where they live, what they do, and their family health history.
The program is open to people both healthy and sick, from all communities. Unlike a single research study focused on a specific disease or community, the All of Us Research Program will create a research resource to inform thousands of studies, covering a wide range of health conditions. This information could help researchers learn more about different diseases and treatments and improve health for generations to come.
The All of Us Journey engages community members nationwide and raises awareness about the All of Us Research Program through various educational activities and experiences.
“The future of health begins with us,” said Allison Mandich, M.S., director of the All of Us Research Program’s Participant Innovations Branch. “If we want better health care for all of us, then medical research needs to include all of us.”
Camp said she joined the All of Us program online before taking the extra step of providing blood and urine samples.
“Their website is user friendly and easy to navigate,” she said. “It took about 30 minutes.”
Visit JoinAllofUs.org/drive to learn more and enroll in the All of Us Research Program.
All of Us is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). The Journey is managed by Montage Marketing Group in collaboration with Scripps Research Translational Institute, and funded by NIH award OT2OD035580.