The All of Us database provides clinical, environmental, and social lifestyle data to inform how these factors affect health conditions, to promote the advancement of biomedical research such as precision medicine. The "Data Browser" public data is aggregated data from participants’ physical measurements, surveys, wearables, and electronic health records. In the "Researcher Workbench" Registered Tier, UNCW researchers can view and analyze within the Workbench platform individual (not aggregated) human subjects' de-identified biomedical data. Training (1 hour) within the platform is required for registration, and will be required to be retaken (1 hour) annually to maintain access. There is no need to complete the additional "Controlled Tier" training, as we do not have access to this set of data.
All of Us data comes from 1 million participants and is intentionally committed to being demographically, geographically, and medically representative of the United States population, including populations that have historically been underrepresented in biomedical research. Participants come from all 50 states; of the participants who have completed all of the steps of the initial protocol, more than 75% are from underrepresented populations, including 50% from racial and ethnic minority groups. More details about All of Us's data collection methods and analysis tools available in the platform can be found at https://www.researchallofus.org/frequently-asked-questions/. The NIH occasionally offers grants for research studies using All of Us data (see https://allofus.nih.gov/).
Without an account, you can view on "Data Browser" aggregated data. With a UNCW-affiliated account at the "Researcher Workbench" Registered Tier, you can view and analyze within the Workbench platform individual human subjects' de-identified biomedical data. UNCW does not have access to the Controlled Tier of the platform, which contains genomic data.
To register for a free UNCW-affiliated account:
- Sign up at https://www.researchallofus.org/ and select your affiliation as a researcher at University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
- Turn on Google 2-Step Verification, using your automatically assigned username.
- Verify your identity within login.gov (a free National Institutes of Health associated account you may have to set up first). You will need your drivers license or other accepted identification card.
- Take approximately 1 hour of Responsible Conduct of Research training for the Registered Tier access in the All of Us platform. There is no need to complete the additional "Controlled Tier" training, as we do not have access to this set of data.
- Sign a Data Code of Conduct Agreement electronically.
Notes: Researchers interested in using All of Us data for their research are advised to submit a brief application in the OSPREY system to describe the activity, with a 'NHSR' designation so that IRB staff may officially confirm that human subjects are not used; working with this data can be considered by IRBs to be "not human subjects research" (NHSR) as there is no interaction with individuals to collect data from them and the data has been carefully de-identified by the All of Us program; however, it is good practice to have evidence of approval from the IRB.
As all analysis must be conducted within the platform, knowledge of Python or R to conduct analysis is helpful but not necessary. Contact Research Data Librarian Lynnee Argabright (ArgabrightL@uncw.edu) for help, or to request a scheduled demonstration of the database for your department.