UK’s largest health research programme opens clinic in Chichester

Future Health aims to transform the prevention, detection and treatment of conditions such as dementia, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. With up to five million volunteers across the UK, the goal is to create one of the most detailed pictures ever of people’s health.

Dr Raghib Ali OBE, Chief Medical Officer at Our Future Health, said: “With more clinics than ever across the country, we’re giving tens of thousands more people the opportunity to learn more about their own health and to help tackle disease in future.

"Putting clinics in places which people visit in everyday life, such as supermarkets, shopping centres and pharmacies means it’s convenient for everyone to contribute to health research, particularly people who have never done something like this before.” 

Working in collaboration with the NHS, the programme is sending invitation letters to people who live near the new clinics. Anyone over the age of 18 can join by signing up online, completing an online health questionnaire, and booking a short clinic appointment. 

They received initial funding of £79 million from UK Research and Innovation when they began which is the UK Government-funded body that invests in science and research.

This funding has been used to begin to deliver their programme. The Government’s 2023 Autumn Statement announced an extra £51 million of new funding, to be delivered through UK Research and Innovation.

They say the funding will go towards genotyping the first one million participants, and recruiting hundreds of thousands of new volunteers.