Marshfield Clinic Health System is enrolling participants in this area in the All of Us research program, a nationwide effort to gather data from one million or more people living in the U.S. The program is of no charge to participants.
Lisa Kunst is a Senior Project Manager for the program in Wisconsin. She says the program is through the National Institutes of Health, a nationwide program. She says the goal is improving health care and the speed of research...
"..What we want to do is be able to improve what is called precision medicine. That means looking into all the individual factors that play into a person's health and taking those into consideration when we give them a treatment...."
She says they will look at environment, lifestyle, biology, genetics and health history.
Kunst describes how people in this region can get involved...
"...We have an award through Marshfield Clinic and we're really trying to make it possible for anyone to join across our entire geographic region. Right now(they) enroll in Wausau, Marshfield and Chippewa Falls. We want to make sure to include the Northwoods region, too. Right now we're doing enrollment every other week in Minocqua. We're also looking at the potential of being able to expand to a day or two a month to expand into Rhinelander as well..."
She says to qualify you need to be over age 18 and able to consent to be in the program. She says any person with any state of health is being sought. She says you can sign up on line, or stop by the Marshfield Clinic Minocqua Center. Participants are given a basic physical.
Kunst says they want Wisconsinites to be included in the national program. She says with the broad cross-section of adults, it provides more and better data for researchers. She says there is no cost to participants and a small reimbursement is also offered.
