Million Veteran Program (MVP) researchers are committed to understanding the relationship between genes and health.

Imagine walking into your VA medical center and receiving screenings and treatments designed just for you. For example, your health care provider knows that you have a gene variant indicating you're at higher risk for heart disease, so she takes extra care to monitor your blood pressure.

Or your mental health care provider knows that your particular genetic makeup means you'll be more responsive to one drug to treat depression than another, so he is able to bring you effective treatment faster.

This is what MVP researchers hope to one day achieve for veterans. It's one of the largest, richest collections of information about genetics and lifestyle in the world.

More than 900,000 veterans have joined so far

MVP researchers are committed to understanding the relationship between genes and health. Because of the participation of more than 900,000 veterans, they have made discoveries around a range of health conditions faced by veterans including:

• Why people with African ancestry may be more at risk for severe kidney disease if they contract COVID-19.
• How military experience and race might affect breast cancer risk.
• The role of genetics as a risk factor for obesity, diabetes, and abnormal lipid levels - all drivers of heart disease.
• How eating yogurt may be beneficial for your health.

CHANGING VETERAN HEALTH CARE

MVP is committed to using its research findings to improve health and wellness for veterans by accelerating the medical community's advancement to personalized health care. The program also hopes to use research to improve treatments by informing the development of new drugs and/or re-purposing existing drugs for other conditions.

WANT TO IMPROVE THE FUTURE OF HEALTH FOR VETERANS?

Research improves with every veteran who joins because each person brings their unique genetic information, lifestyle and military experiences to the program. Researchers especially want to advance understanding of health conditions that impact women and people of African and Hispanic ancestry, as those groups have traditionally been under-represented in research. The more varied MVP's data, the more discoveries researchers can make.

HOW DO I ENROLL?

It's easy to enroll in MVP. You can visit many VA facilities nationwide or enroll from the comfort of your home online at mvp.va.gov. Be assured that MVP is committed to keeping participant information protected. All information collected as a part of MVP is stored in a secure database only available for research purposes.

LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW MILLION VETERAN PROGRAM USES VETERAN DATA

Check out the "MVP 101" video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPftNsGVFu0) to learn more about how the program studies information provided by veteran participants to make discoveries they hope will one day improve veteran health.

Make your mark on the future of vveteran health care by joining more than 900,000 enrolled veterans.