Advocacy, Outreach and Collaboration
Panel
Lydia Collins, MLIS
Participant Engagement Lead
Training and Education Center, All of Us Research Program
Linda Davis, MLS, MBA
Assistant Director of Collections and Community Engagement
the Public Library Albuquerque and Bernalillo County Library
Yamila El-Khayat, M.A.
Outreach Services Librarian
University of Arizona
Darlene Cavalier
Professor of Practice, School for the Future of Innovation in Society
Arizona State University
This panel discussion will bring together a unique group of people to provide insight into the All of Us Research Program and innovative ways that public libraries can improve the health of their communities, now and for years to come. Traditionally, minority, ethnic and other special populations have been underrepresented in clinical research, which has resulted in a lack of understanding about how disease and therapies actually work in these populations. The NIH's All of Us Research Program is an unprecedented effort to gather data from one million or more people mirroring the diversity of the United States to accelerate research and improve health. By taking into account individual differences in lifestyle, environment, and biology, researchers will uncover paths toward delivering precision medicine. This panel presentation will provide an overview of the All of Us Research Program and the National Institutes of Health partnership with the National Library of Medicine, which focuses on public libraries and community engagement. Attendees will hear about programs and funding opportunities for creating engaging health programs and improving health literacy in the community. Another panelist will share success stories of citizen science projects in public libraries and a recently created toolkit for citizen science projects. The discussion will provide ideas and tools for libraries to develop citizen science and other programs related to health research and medical discovery for diverse populations. Finally, an actual participant in the research program (also a librarian) will share her experiences in the beta phase of the research.