Invisible no longer: UnidosUS Affiliates engage Latino communities in national health care research program to create a better health future for all
Advances in science and medicine are helping our communities live longer lives, but there is still much to be done to prevent or delay diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer. We need to fully understand how people’s lifestyles, environments, and biological makeup affect their health so we can create more effective, personalized medications and treatments.
Currently, our Latino communities are significantly underrepresented in health research. That is why UnidosUs is partnering with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to raise awareness around the importance of Latino involvement in the All of Us Research Program.
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The All of Us Research Program—led by NIH—aims to engage at least one million volunteers, from all walks of life to share health information about themselves. This large database of health information will enable researchers to identify new medical breakthroughs and accelerate more precise, individualized care and treatments for all of our communities for generations to come.
What is individualized/personalized care and why is it important? Individualized or personalized care, also known as precision medicine, is an important shift from the current one-size-fits-all approach to health care. Personalized care involves using a person’s unique genetic makeup, illnesses, ethnicity, habits, and more to customize and inform the types of medications and treatments created and provided to more effectively prevent diseases and treat patients.
The All of Us Research Program is not a clinical trial. It’s a broad research program that encourages the involvement of individuals from all walks of life and includes individuals of diverse age, ethnicity, health status, and geographic locations.
How this research can help our communities:
- Guide the prevention of chronic pain
- Develop better pain medicines that aren’t addictive
- Develop better treatments for diabetes
- Slow or even stop different kinds of dementia
- Develop more cancer cures that will work the first time, so we can skip painful trial-and-error chemotherapy
NIH is committed to providing secure access to this database to qualified researchers within our communities who are looking to participate in health discoveries and breakthroughs.
UnidosUS is one of more than one hundred national and local organizations across the country involved in this important initiative. As a community engagement partner for NIH All of Us Research Program, UnidosUS has an overarching goal of increasing awareness and engagement of the Latino community in All of Us through cultural sensitive information. Under this project, UnidosUS Affiliate community-based organizations and their promotores de salud (community health workers) are in the process of conducting charlas (small community sessions) in local communities.
UnidosUS recently held a national convening of community influencers to discuss the involvement of Latino communities in the program, and to provide NIH with feedback and perspectives specific to the communities we serve.
Visit allofus.unidosus.org to learn more on how you can become involved in this program, and transform health in your community for generations to come.
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