NIH exhibit to boost medical breakthroughs coming to UNTHSC

November 20, 2018

By Alex Branch

 

Tarrant County residents have a unique opportunity to contribute to medical breakthroughs and health research this month when a National Institutes of Health exhibit visits UNT Health Science Center.

The NIH “All of Us” hands-on exhibit will be set up from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Nov. 27, in front of the Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library, 955 Montgomery St., in Fort Worth.

All of Us is a program intended to speed up ground-breaking research by recruiting 1 million volunteers to share different types of health and lifestyle information, such as where they live, what they do and their family health history.

NIH will use that information to create a research resource to inform thousands of studies, covering a wide range of health conditions. This information could help researchers uncover paths toward delivering precision medicine by taking into account individual differences in lifestyle, environment and biology.

Since 2016, UNTHSC’s library has served as the South Central Regional Medical Library, one of eight libraries in the National Network of Libraries of Medicine. The network is supporting the NIH’s All of Us research by helping public libraries and community organizations engage with their users on managing personal health information.

“The future of health begins with us,” said Dan Burgard, Executive Director, UNTHSC Library and Information Services. “If we want better health care for all of us, medical research needs to include all of us. The University of North Texas Health Science Center is excited to work with the All of Us Research Program to bring communities together to help change health for generations to come.”

Light refreshments will be served at the event. A parking attendant will distribute free parking passes in Lot 19.