From staff reports
A research team from the VA Pittsburgh’s Million Veteran Program will visit the Clarion County VA clinic in Monroe Township from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday, July 29, in hopes of finding veterans who will participate in a research project.
MVP is the world’s largest database of health and genomic information collected from more than 700,000 U.S. veterans across the nation.
Local veterans who would like to provide information for the database can stop by the MVP bus in the parking lot of the Clarion VA clinic on July 29.
Signup is quick and voluntary. More than 13,300 veterans in western Pennsylvania and eastern Ohio served by VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Butler VA Health Care System, Erie VA Medical Center and James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center (Altoona) have already signed up.
“The initial DNA collection and survey take about 20 minutes. It’s completely voluntary and your information is coded for protection,” said Beatrice Chakraborty, MVP coordinator at VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.
“What’s great is that even though we haven’t reached 1 million veterans nationally, there are already studies underway using MVP data,” Chakraborty said. “And with so many veterans concentrated in western Pennsylvania, we feel it’s important that they be represented in current and future studies using the data.”
Veterans interested in participating or learning more about MVP may call (866) 441-6075.