Last week I walked into Boots  and, after giving some physical measurements, including my blood pressure and cholesterol levels, I gave a blood sample to be part of the Our Future Health initiative. Our Future Health (https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk/)  is set to become the UK’s largest health research programme ever. With the aim of recruiting five million volunteers across the country, it aims to revolutionise the way we detect, prevent and treat disease.

The breadth, depth and detail of Our Future Health makes it a world-leading resource. The data collected could hold the key to a wide range of health discoveries, such as:

• Identifying early signals to detect disease much earlier.
• Accurately predicting who is at higher risk of disease.
• Developing better interventions and more effective treatments and technologies.

How’s it going so far?

Since the start of recruitment in July 2022 (delyed because of Covid), the programme has recruited over one million participants where: