Gillian Ebberson, 67, is already a member of UK Biobank, external, a similar project set up two decades ago, which is following the health of 500,000 adults in the UK. She was wearing a heart monitor as part of UK Biobank research. She has grandchildren and wants any health advances to help them.
“I just think going forward for the future health of our children, our grandchildren and for everyone, it’s a good thing.”
Dr Raghib Ali, the Chief Medical Officer of Our Future Health, is a consultant in acute medicine in Oxford, so spends some of his time in A&E.
He told the BBC: “Most of my patients come in with things like a heart attack, stroke or cancer, and we know these diseases have developed over many years. With Our Future Health we are trying to move our model of healthcare from the treatment of disease at a late stage when people have symptoms, to one where we identify those at high risk earlier, intervening and preventing those diseases in the first place.”
He also said it was important that people from all backgrounds signed up to prevent any further widening health inequalities, after a relative lack of diversity in previous studies.
Our Future Health is funded by the government and industry. The project team say volunteers’ data is being kept in a “very secure environment” and only scientists whose research has a public health benefit will be given access.
