Veterans can now join the Million Veteran Program online (MVP) as part of the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) effort to improve the lives of Veterans through health care research and innovation.
More than 775,000 Veteran partners have already joined MVP, a national, voluntary, research initiative that helps VA study how genes affect the health of Veterans.
“MVP has already resulted in a number of important scientific publications that increase our knowledge of conditions that affect Veterans’ health, and we expect this resource to continue to prove its value over the coming years,” said VA Secretary Robert Wilkie. “VA is excited to announce the launch of MVP Online, which will make it even easier for Veterans nationwide to take part in this landmark research effort.”
Veterans currently enrolled in VA care can use their existing VA credentials to securely log in to MVP Online to view their personalized dashboard and learn more about the program. To partner with MVP, Veterans can use the online portal to complete the consent process, allow access to health records (for research purposes only), answer surveys about their health and lifestyle and schedule an MVP visit at a participating VA site to provide a blood sample. VA is currently piloting ways to make the MVP sample collection more convenient for Veterans who do not live near a participating VA site.
MVP helps researchers better understand how genes affect health and illness, which may help prevent illnesses and improve treatments of disease. Research using MVP data is already a part of more than 30 VA projects, including efforts focused on understanding the role of genes in PTSD, diabetes, cancer, heart disease and suicide. Significant research findings have already published in high-impact scientific journals. This research is helping VA to better understand the role genes play in many common illnesses, especially those illnesses common among combat Veterans.
MVP partners include Veterans from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. MVP also has the largest representation of minorities of any genomic cohort in the U.S.
For more information about the Million Veteran Program, visit MVP Online at https://www.mvp.va.gov. For Veterans not enrolled in VA care, the ability to join using MVP Online will be available in the near future. Until then, please call the MVP Info Center at 866-441-6075 to learn more about how to join.