NIH's All of Us program taps clinical data-sharing networks to add thousands of EHR records

The National Institutes of Health's All of Us research program announced a new method for gathering real-world health data by leveraging existing patient data-sharing networks that are typically used for clinical care coordination.

The initiative has already secured thousands of electronic health records, helping to fill gaps in the program’s database, which already contains health and wellness information from about 750,000 volunteers, including genome sequences, wearable data and surveys.

Despite a high consent rate-about 98 percent of participants agree to share their records-more than 300,000 participants still lack any electronic health record data in the system. The new approach aims to reduce that shortfall.

Researchers will be able to access a more complete longitudinal view of participants’ health journeys, potentially accelerating precision-medicine studies that rely on comprehensive real-world evidence.