A large medical-research project in the UK has revealed that most people with high cholesterol are not receiving treatment, and a quarter have untreated high blood pressure. Funded by the government and industry, Our Future Health aims to analyze people’s genes and lifestyle to prevent disease. The project has recently enrolled its millionth volunteer, with a target of five million enrollees.
“We found that actually over half had cholesterols that should have been treated and hadn’t been treated,” said Professor Sir John Bell, from the University of Oxford, who chairs Our Future Health. “And they included people that were actually quite young.” The project has placed mobile health centers in supermarket car parks, where enrolled participants undergo health checks, including cholesterol, height, and blood pressure measurements.
The project seeks to move the healthcare model from treating disease at a late stage when people have symptoms to identifying people at high risk earlier and intervening to prevent those diseases in the first place. The Chief Medical Officer of Our Future Health, Dr. Raghib Ali, says the project will eventually yield powerful insights into a range of diseases and lead to better prevention, diagnosis, and treatment.
The collected data is being kept in a secure environment, and only scientists whose research has a public health benefit will gain access. Our Future Health aims to encourage people from all backgrounds to sign up to prevent any further health inequalities. The project, which is funded by the government and industry, is set to complete its enrolment in 2028 and should provide insights into diseases in the future
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