Our Future Health is now the largest longitudinal cohort study in the world that uses blood samples, with over a million people from across the UK having joined. The health research programme was set up with funding from UK Research and Innovation’s Accelerating Detection of Disease Challenge, delivered by Innovate UK.
It is an ambitious collaboration between the public sector, life sciences companies and leading UK health charities. The programme aims to transform the prevention, detection and treatment of conditions such as: dementia, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
With eventually up to five million volunteers right across the UK, the goal is to create one of the most detailed pictures ever of people’s health.
Our Future Health also has the largest ever number of participants from under-represented groups in a health research programme. It includes people from more diverse and representative populations from every part of the UK. This means it can be used for research that benefits everyone, including tackling diseases that disproportionately affect some groups across society, thereby reducing health inequalities.
Dr Raghib Ali OBE, CEO of Our Future Health, said: “We can now say that Our Future Health is the world’s largest health research programme of its kind. Our volunteers’ data is creating a transformative scientific resource that will power health discoveries for decades to come and help everyone live longer and healthier lives. Already, we have an incredibly detailed picture of the UK’s health, offering health researchers a window into the causes of every major common disease.”
For the first time, researchers will be able to look at the genetic information of over a million people and see how it interacts with demographics, lifestyle, physical measurements, family history, and personal medical records. And because volunteers have consented to be re-contacted to take part in further health studies, the programme will also be able to work towards preventing those diseases.