Positioned on Pitt’s campus, the center brings research directly to the community enabling both students of local universities and area residents to easily register for the study.
AoU PA is a regional initiative of the larger All of Us research program — a historic National Institutes of Health effort aimed at accelerating research and improving health through an individualized approach to health care, known as precision medicine.
AoU PA enrollment centers can be found as far south as the West Virginia border, as far north as Erie and as far east as Altoona. The Pitt-based research program also has partnered with the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University to recruit participants in the Philadelphia area.
“Our goal is to get 120,000 Pennsylvanians to enroll in the program,” said Dr Steven Reis, co-investigator of the AoU PA study, associate vice chancellor for clinical research, health sciences and distinguished service professor of medicine at Pitt. “If Pennsylvanians were not in this study, the data collected would be irrelevant to our population because we have unique environmental factors based on where we live.”
AoU PA recently welcomed its 20,000th participant, marking a significant milestone toward the total recruitment goal. In order for specific places like Pittsburgh to be represented in the research, area residents are asked to share information about their lifestyles, environment and genes to help identify factors that may contribute to health risks and diseases.
“Frequently, when I go to literature, the research is not applicable to my patient population at the UPMC Matilda Theiss Center,” said Dr. Mylynda Massart, co-investigator of the AoU PA study and assistant professor of family medicine at the Pitt. “I find that gaps in research exist for many of my patients. Community participation is not only essential to the program’s success in numbers, but it greatly impacts the quality of the data gathered through the study.”
Participants enrolling in AoU PA can expect up to a one-hour initial visit for completion of questionnaires and collection of physical measurements, blood and urine samples. Secure access to the participant’s electronic medical record will be requested and $25 in compensation will be provided for signing up.
The newest enrollment center can be found at 3616 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, 15213. For more information or to find additional enrollment locations, click here.
