From health research to healthcare
VA News ·
VA’s largest research effort, the Million Veteran Program, is using research to improve healthcare for Veterans.
Every Veteran who joins the Million Veteran Program helps advance a shared goal: using research to improve healthcare for Veterans. Today, MVP research is beginning to inform new approaches to care.
Thanks to more than 1 million Veterans who are part of the Million Veteran Program, we are advancing science and transforming care for Veterans like you.
The MVP Return of Actionable Results, or MVP-ROAR study , is one early example of how MVP’s data can lead to more personalized healthcare.
In this study, researchers identified Veterans with a genetic risk for familial hypercholesterolemia, a condition that can cause dangerously high cholesterol and often goes undiagnosed. The research team reached out to a small group of affected Veterans, obtained their consent to share results with them and their providers, confirmed their findings through additional clinical testing, and connected them with a VA genetic counselor.
“Once we had results back, I gave those Veterans a call to tell them their result, and we shared the results with their primary care providers, so that they can make clinical decisions based on it,” said Morgan Danowski, VA genetic counselor.
In another example demonstrating the power of MVP’s research, scientists used data from more than 585,000 male participants to develop and test a tool that may help identify men at higher risk of prostate cancer.
The tool is now being evaluated in the Prostate Cancer, Genetic Risk, and Equitable Screening Study ( ProGRESS ), a VA-sponsored clinical trial. Researchers are studying whether using it alongside standard prostate cancer screening can help identify Veterans at greater risk of developing advanced, metastatic disease. For more information, please visit ProGRESS .
Army Veteran Leland R. learned he was at a higher risk of prostate cancer through the study.
“Once I found out about my predisposition to prostate cancer, one of the first phone calls I made was to my son. I have given him a copy of my study so that he can bring that to his health care provider so that he can advocate for himself,” he shared.
If you’re an MVP participant, your coded data helps researchers discover differences and similarities in genes that can impact health. Because MVP genetic data is collected for research, not clinical care, MVP does not routinely return genetic results directly to participants.
In some cases, MVP findings may help researchers design new studies, such as MVP-ROAR and ProGRESS. If MVP participants are eligible for additional studies in the future, we’ll contact you with more information. Before receiving any individual result, you would be asked to provide additional consent, and the finding may be confirmed through a clinical laboratory test.
Taking part in any additional study and choosing whether to receive results is always your decision. It’s completely voluntary, and your choice to participate will not impact your participation in MVP or your access to VA healthcare or benefits.
Researchers are continuously making new discoveries . Learn more about MVP and join today. Questions? You can also call 866-441-6075, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.