“The richness of the data being gleaned from the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Million Veteran Program is enabling researchers to begin to shed light on the genetics of a range of medical conditions.”
“’Today, eight years after it began, it is the largest mega-biobank in the world,’ according to Carolyn Clancy, MD, deputy undersecretary for discovery, education and affiliate networks for the Veterans Health Administration. ‘Over 750,000 veterans from all 50 states, Guam and Puerto Rico have enrolled, and we also have their clinical electronic data—which makes it literally a unique resource in the world.’”
“The VA’s MVP research program is designed to link genetic, clinical, lifestyle and military-exposure information to better understand the impact on the health—and illness—of veterans…”
“On a related note, Clancy said that her office is ‘actively working with Cerner’ to ensure that the VA’s transition over 10 years from its legacy VistA system to Cerner’s Millennium platform will support MVP’s research needs.” Read the full article here.
Source: VA contends that it now has the world’s largest biobank – By Greg Slabodkin, June 27, 2019. HealthData Management.
