The VA Research Million Veteran Program is more than just a catchy name for research project.
Over the next five to seven years, VA Research, through the Million Veteran Program,
hopes to enroll as many as one million volunteer Veteran research participants.
And here at the DC VA Medical Center,
that journey is taken one Veteran at a time.
The Million Veteran Program can go a long way because of the fact we have so much electronic information.
We have electronic medical records of so many Veterans in the Million Veteran Program,
we'd be able to follow these people over time--follow the Veterans and see who develops
certain side effects, who develops certain intolerances to medications.
Narrator: Determining treatment methods based an individual's genetic makeup is called personalized medicine
and is the cornerstone of the VA Research Million Veteran Program.
The emphasis of MVP is to partner with Veterans receiving their care in the Veterans Healthcare System
to study how genes affect health.
Being in the Air Force is where I grew up so, you know,
going in, automatically, it's where I did everything first, you know, being on my own.
I loved it I really did.
Hopefully they can find a cure for just about anything with this research.
I have bipolar disorder, which was diagnosed while I was in the military.
VA health care has always been very good to me,
especially when when I when I didn't have anywhere to go.
I actually heard about the Million Veteran Program here
from my doctor, Dr. Fanous.
He asked would I be interested in being involved in research that would help other Veterans.
They would draw my blood and they would study any genetic factors to any illnesses that I might have.
Well, I'm all for anything that'll help anybody with bipolar disorder or any other.
That portion of it interested me.
I received an honorable discharge from the military—a medical discharge—
and the people were real nice to me at Fort Bliss in El Paso Texas.
I remember life for me before schizophrenia.
I was a normal kid, playing baseball, football--living a normal life.
It's hard to turn back the clock, but the clock can move forward also.
If you can turn off schizophrenia,
you can turn on a man, and make him happy in life.
The great thing about MVP is that we're able to really identify people with just about all of the diseases that afflict the general population.
So we're looking at everything from diabetes to high blood pressure to various types of cancer,
and certainly to my area, the psychiatric illnesses,
so schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD,
depression, things that--things that have a really tremendously high public health impact.
All of those disorders will be represented in the Million Veteran Program.
More and more personalized medicine is becoming what we call a genomic medicine,
where we're hoping to take in the individual's genetic information--
their genetic code-- to try to use that information to
tailor treatment specifically for them where they would have the best chance of getting better
and a much less chance of having side effects.
I thought it was well worthwhile
—worth participating in because you're helping millions of Veterans—
people who have gone overseas and conquered warriors--
people of this stature.
I would say to other veterans who are considering MVP
that it is a good program, because all the research being done now to help find cures for just about anything.
I mean, who knows, with this program we could find a cure for cancer.
Narrator: If you are a Veteran who receives care through the Veterans Health Administration
and would like to be a part of transforming healthcare for the 21st Century,
visit the Million Veteran Program website, or call 866-441-6075.