The National Institutes of Health added three new provider groups to its All of Us Research Program with $13.8 million in grants.

NIH said the grant money will go toward enrolling participants and gathering health information of the precision medicine initiative. The All of Us Research Program plans to gather data from more than 1 million people living in the United States that researchers will be able to use to better understand disease states and the impact of individual differences in lifestyle, environment and biological makeup. 

[Also: NIH's 'All of Us' precision medicine initiative names four partners]

NIH named the new enrollees as the Southern All of Us Network, the SouthEast Enrollment Center and All of Us, Wisconsin. Each of the organizations includes several hospitals and other provider entities. 

The Southern All of Us Network, for instance, includes the University of Alabama Birmingham, Tulane Medical Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, University of Mississippi Medical Center, among many other participants. 

All of Us, Wisconsin, meanwhile, consists of Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, as well as the BloodCenter of Wisconsin. 

[Also: NIH precision medicine project to explore enrollment of kids]

Several providers in Atlanta and Florida comprise the SouthEast Enrollment Centers, notably the Emory University Atlanta, Morehouse School of Medicine Atlanta and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and University of Florida Gainesville. 

Eric Dishman, director of All of Us at NIH, said that building out the network will enable the program to reach patient populations typically underrepresented in medical research. 

“Working with participants across the country, we hope to contribute to medical breakthroughs that may lead to more tailored disease prevention and treatment solutions in the future,” Dishman said. 

Dishman also said at the HIMSS and Healthcare IT News Precision Medicine Summit during June of 2017 that NIH views the initial goal of enrolling 1 million participants as just a start, with the ultimate intent to scale into billions of people around the globe. 

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN
Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com