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The UK's most comprehensive medical database has gone live
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025

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The UK has launched the Biobank, the largest and most detailed database, which includes medical and genetic data, as well as lifestyle information, on 500,000 islanders aged 40 to 69.
All this is available to specialists who need a large sample to search for the causes of diseases and treatment methods. The main goal of the project is to understand to what extent genetic, environmental and other factors are responsible for the occurrence and development of the disease.
The database contains data only on those people who have agreed to disclose it.
The project was established in 2006. Only those researchers who can prove that they are acting in the interests of medicine and that their findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals will have access to the information. A special board will handle the applications. One of the first clients is likely to be the US National Institutes of Health, which wanted to create something similar but considered it too expensive ($2 billion!). In the UK, they were able to get by with a smaller sum.
China has a similar database, it is called "Kaduri Biobank". It also has 500 thousand volunteers, but the founder of the British version Rory Collins claims that he has more detailed information. However, both archives complement each other in some ways and can be used together in some studies.
The Chinese project has already yielded some important results, including that thinner men have a higher risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and that diabetes and psychological stress are among the main risk factors for heart attacks.
The UK database is organised into more than 1,000 categories: whether a person uses a mobile phone, how often they see friends and family, how hard they clench their fists, their bone density, their blood pressure, how much fat they have, how well their lungs work, how well they score on standard cognitive tests...
And that's not the limit. The organizers plan to do MRI of at least every fifth volunteer. Much attention will be paid to accelerometers: the project participants will wear them for a week to accurately measure their physical activity. Plus ultrasound, X-ray of bones and joints, etc.
Every two to three years, about 20,000 volunteers will undergo full follow-up examinations. In addition, all new entries made in the medical records of all volunteers by local therapists, hospital staff, and pathologists will be automatically entered into the database.
Some of the participants already have dangerous diseases: 26 thousand have diabetes, 50 thousand have joint problems, 11 thousand have had at least one heart attack. It is expected that in ten years, 40 thousand volunteers will have diabetes, and the number of "heart patients" will grow to 28 thousand.