The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has established leadership in genomic medicine through the undertaking of a ground-breaking program called the Million Veteran Program (MVP). Launched in 2011, MVP invites users of the VA healthcare system nationwide to participate in a longitudinal study with the aim of better understanding the inter-relation of genetic characteristics, behaviors and environmental factors, and Veteran’s health. Today MVP is the largest genomic research database in the world. The MVP data consists of blood samples from consenting Veterans that is used to generate genomic data, data from questionnaires and the electronic health record data. This resource is made available to VA researchers and VA-approved affiliates to pursue genomic discoveries and validation studies that can lead to personalized healthcare for Veterans. Ultimately, validated scientific findings will be returned to the Veteran and incorporated into their medical record to fulfill the potential of personalized medicine – delivery of optimal interventions to patients based on their biological characteristics.

The primary component of the project is the Genomic Information System for Integrative Science (Genisis) platform. Genisis 1.0, implemented between 2011 and 2015, features a series of modular applications to facilitate recruitment and enrollment of MVP participants, automating most study-related logistics including study enrollment, clinical study data capture, consent, blood sample tracking, and genomic data storage. Genisis 1.0 also provides the secure analytical infrastructure necessary to conduct robust genomic and bioinformatics-related data management and data analysis. This remotely accessible analysis environment features a high performance computing cluster with significant storage capacity and tools for scientific analysis of combined genotypic and phenotypic data.

Genisis 2 will provide additional functionality to the Genisis 1.0 platform by automating data processing, data request transactions, and data request tracking for integrating VA Informatics and Computing Infrastructure (VINCI) clinical data into Genisis, as well as providing enhanced system administration.