Building analytical capacity for research at Federally Qualified Health Centers through the All of Us Research...

The National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program (All of Us or program) aims to better understand the complexity of diseases, prevention and treatment at the individual level. To accomplish this, one of the program components is to build a longitudinal cohort of one million or more volunteers in the United States and its territories through which clinical, environmental, genetic, and behavioral data are collected. Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) play a crucial role in enrolling participants in the program and while FQHCs have the dedication, leadership, and wherewithal to operationalize a national longitudinal data collection, their local resources are limited by funding and scope for conducting research. This paper describes the evolution of FQHC research landscape, from building capacity for descriptive, to exploratory operational research, and moving toward biomedical research. As programs such as All of Us continue to ensure that focus on precision medicine is reflected in both data collection and research, continuing to advance the research landscape within health centers is crucial. By developing this capacity, we are developing a research infrastructure that will continue to grow, supporting advancements in precision medicine for improving health outcomes.