Million Veteran Program

Veterans interested in participating in this program can call 866-441-6075.

Genes carry instructions for building and maintaining our bodies. They determine the color of our eyes and hair, our height, and other personal features. Small differences in our genes may also explain why some people get diseases and others do not. In addition, genes interact with our lifestyle factors and environment to influence our risk for common illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Genes may also affect how people respond to certain medications and treatments. Having a better understanding of how genes work may help to prevent and improve treatment of disease.

Any Veteran receiving care in the VA health care system can participate. Participation includes:

• Filling out surveys through the mail.
• Completing a one-time study visit to provide a blood sample for genetic analysis at MEDVAMC.
• Permitting authorized MVP staff to access information in your medical record on an ongoing basis.
• Agreeing to future MVP contact.
• Participation takes about 20 minutes. For your convenience, MVP study visits may be scheduled on the same day as other VA health care appointments.

Research findings based on MVP may lead to new ways of preventing and treating illnesses in Veterans and all Americans.

The research will help answer questions like:

• Why does a treatment work well for some Veterans but not for others?
• Why are some Veterans at a greater risk for developing an illness?
• How can we prevent certain illnesses in the first place?

While your participation may not immediately benefit you, over time what we learn from MVP will benefit all Veterans and the population at large.

• The risks of a blood draw include pain, bleeding, bruising, or infection.
• Filling out the survey my result in distress if you discover family health conditions of which you were not aware.
• There is a slight risk of a breach of confidentially. The next section describes how VA will minimize this risk.

Patient safety and information security are the top priorities in MVP and all VA research. If you participate in MVP, your privacy and confidentiality are protected in the following ways:

• All samples will be stored in a secure VA biorepository.
• All samples and health information will be labeled with a code so that no one can directly identify participants. Only a few authorized VA employees will have access to the key to the code. 
• Researchers who are approved access to analyze samples and data will not receive name, date of birth, address, or social security number of participating Veterans.