Frequently Asked Questions

The Million Veteran Program (MVP) is VA’s largest research program. We study how genes, lifestyles, military experiences, and exposures affect health and wellness. We started in 2011 with the goal of more than one million Veterans joining our program, because genetic research works best with participation from large amounts of people from diverse backgrounds. On November 8th, 2023, the one-millionth Veteran joined MVP—and we’re not stopping there. Every Veteran who joins our program helps us make discoveries to improve health for Veterans and, ultimately, everyone.

When Veterans join MVP, they provide a blood sample for analysis, complete surveys about health and wellness, and grant researchers secure access to their health records. MVP codes this information—which means we remove identifying details like names, dates of birth, and social security numbers from the data—and stores it in our secure database. Approved researchers use the coded information in the database to study health conditions.

Researchers use information from MVP to study a wide range of topics that can help with the prevention, detection, and treatment of health conditions, which will help improve health for Veterans and, ultimately, everyone. MVP is the largest and most diverse genetic research program connected to a health system in the world, and because of its size and diversity, researchers can study how health conditions affect different populations.

Information from MVP is used to research conditions that matter to Veterans, like mental health, heart health, cancer, military exposures, PTSD, TBI, and many more. More than 400 scientific articles have already been published using information from MVP. To learn more about our research findings, visit Our Impact: In Research at mvp.va.gov.

The goal is for MVP’s research findings to help improve health care for Veterans. Already, research findings from MVP are helping to inform future changes to clinical care, such as detection for prostate and breast cancer, how genes cause people to respond to different medications, including those for blood clots and diabetes, and how genes impact the success of knee and hip replacement surgeries.

A gene is the code present in each cell in your body and is made up of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). DNA is the part of the cell that contains all the information on what the cell is and what it does. Genes determine things like the color of our eyes and hair, our height, and other personal traits. Through complex interactions with our environment and various lifestyle factors, genes may also contribute to our risk for disease, including common illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Because of small differences between our genes, some people may respond better than others to a particular treatment or experience different side effects from medications. Overall, a better understanding of how genes work may help to prevent and improve treatment of disease.

Call the MVP Info Center toll-free at  866-441-6075 (Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET) or email us at askmvp@va.gov.

No, participating in MVP will not affect your VA disability benefits, disability rating, or your future ability to claim disability benefits. Participating in MVP is not affiliated with applying for or receiving a disability rating.

No, participating in MVP will not affect your access to VA health care. Additionally, your doctors will not receive the information you provide to MVP through surveys or your blood sample.

No, participating in MVP will not affect your children’s ability to join the military.

Call the MVP Info Center toll-free at  866-441-6075 (Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET) or email us at askmvp@va.gov.

MVP has locations at VA facilities across the country. You can find a current list here.

Joining MVP in person involves a one-time visit to a VA facility with an MVP staff member. In rare cases, your blood sample may be unable to be used for our research. If this happens, you may be asked to voluntarily return to the facility to provide another blood sample.

The visit time will vary from person to person but typically lasts about 20 minutes.

No, you do not need to fast before your MVP visit. You may eat and drink before your visit.

At this time, MVP cannot visit individual’s homes to complete enrollment.  However, you can join MVP from the comfort of your home online at mvp.va.gov.  You may also provide your blood sample using an “at-home” blood collection kit that you can request from mvp.va.gov or by calling the MVP Info Center toll-free 866-441-6075 (Monday – Friday; 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET).

MVP does not reimburse for travel expenses (e.g., car mileage, taxi or any other form of travel) or time away from work. If you are already traveling to the VA for a clinic appointment, we recommend scheduling your MVP visit for the same day.  

MVP is not able to pay for or provide baby-sitter/caretaker services. However, your children/elderly relatives are welcome to accompany you during your visit, as allowed by the local VA facility.

If you are disabled, you may still be able to arrange local VA hospital transportation as you would for other VA appointments. MVP is unable to make those arrangements for you.  MVP is also not able to provide reimbursement for travel expenses like a taxi or car service.

The VA has full access for Veterans with disabilities. MVP does not require any assessments that will cause difficulty because of your wheelchair. Blood collection may occur while you are seated in your wheelchair. VA facilities have full access for Veterans with disabilities and, if necessary, a wheelchair can be made available to you.

Unfortunately, MVP does not have information available in Braille or audio versions, but MVP can arrange for someone to read the information to you. All materials available on MVP Online are 508 compliant, which means they will work with screen readers.

Yes, you may bring an ASL interpreter.

The MVP Baseline Survey collects information about topics such as health status, habits, military experience, medical history, and family medical history.

The MVP Lifestyle Survey contains questions about sleep and exercise habits, environmental exposures, dietary habits, and well-being.

Your answers give MVP researchers a better idea of who you are, including your health and lifestyle habits. We use survey responses, information in your health record, and genetic information to study health conditions, which can lead to improved detection, prevention, and treatment of health conditions.

If there is a question you are not comfortable answering you can skip it. If any of the questions make you feel uncomfortable, you may leave the answer blank and move on to the next question. The responses you provide in the surveys will not affect your benefits or care and are not included in your VA health records.

If you have a question about a survey question or you need help filling out the survey by hand, you can have a trusted friend or family member help you.

If you prefer not to involve a friend or family member, you can call the MVP Info Center toll-free at 866-441-6075 (Monday – Friday; 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. ET) and they can read a question to you. You can also access the surveys online at mvp.va.gov which are federally compliant to be accessible for people with disabilities.

MVP MHS stands for MVP’s Mental Health Survey (MHS). The MVP MHS collects detailed mental health and substance use information to help researchers better understand the genetics of mental health and substance use disorders.

The Mental Health Survey takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours to complete (depending on how many questions relate to your experiences).

After enrolling in MVP, you can complete the MHS at one of our MVP-MHS locations.

MVP will take up to 10 ml of blood, which is about 2 teaspoons full.

Your blood sample will provide MVP researchers with genetic information to help them better understand and treat health conditions. MVP uses a blood sample instead of a cheek swab or saliva because a blood sample provides more information than other sources of genetic samples.

Either specially trained MVP staff or the VA facility lab will draw your blood sample.

The risks of having blood taken from a vein in your arm are pain, bleeding, bruising, and, rarely, infection at the site where the needle is inserted. Fainting or light-headedness may occur, but it seldom happens. The individuals who perform blood draws are experienced in taking blood and work to keep any potential discomfort to a minimum.

MVP is a voluntary research program, which means we only use information from Veterans who agree to join MVP. Even if you’ve given a blood sample previously, like during your military service or a VA appointment, our program does not have access to and cannot request that information. We only use information from Veterans who agree to participate in MVP.

The sample you originally provided may have been lost, damaged or otherwise determined to be unusable. We are contacting you to see if you are willing to provide another sample so that your blood sample can be included in MVP. If you decide not to, you still remain enrolled in MVP.

Protecting the confidentiality, privacy, and security of our participants is one of MVP’s top priorities. We maintain your confidentiality, privacy, and security in many ways, including coding your information to remove identifying details; securely protecting your information by following all federal laws and regulations; and using advanced technology to secure your information.

MVP uses a unique numeric code for you and the information you provide on the MVP surveys and your health records. We store the information using this code instead of your name. Personally identifiable information (PII), like your name, address, social security number, or date of birth, is only available to a small group of MVP staff. It is not included when your information is used for research. Blood samples are stored separately from other information (your survey data and health record data) and assigned a different code. The blood sample is sent to a VA Central Biorepository which does not have access to your identifiable information.

Only VA-approved research projects are granted access to MVP data. Information from your blood sample, survey responses, and health records is linked using codes that do not allow researchers to identify you. We do not disclose MVP participants’ data, including genetic information, to anyone outside of approved research projects. This means we will never share your information with health insurance companies, group health plans, or employers.

All data storage and analysis occurs within VA-approved systems. No individual-level data leaves the system, and only summary results from research projects can be downloaded.
We protect the computers that hold your information with security programs (firewalls), encryption, and password protection. Our VA computing infrastructure meets VA IT Privacy and Security requirements.

Your blood sample has a code used for tracking and processing and is shipped to a VA Central Biorepository via next-day shipping. State-of-the-art robotic systems process the sample to prepare it for analysis and storage. We perform quality control on all blood samples, making sure they are high quality and can be included in research studies. If your sample does not pass quality control measures, MVP may contact you to ask for a new sample. We process your blood sample to obtain DNA (genetic material) and prepare it for analysis. This is important so the sample can be turned into information that MVP researchers can use to better understand, prevent, and treat conditions and diseases that affect Veterans. Samples may also be used for additional analysis to look at other parts of the blood like proteins. MVP stores the samples safely and securely. Laboratory access is controlled, and only VA-authorized staff are allowed access.

In addition to DNA, other substances can include proteins, metabolites, and lipids which can give researchers more information about how your body functions, responds to treatment, and how disease develops over time.

All samples are stored indefinitely until they are used up for research purposes or they are no longer of scientific value. If you decide to withdraw from MVP and notify MVP as instructed during the consenting process, the DNA and other samples will be destroyed so that they cannot be used in any further research.

At this time, MVP’s access to your health record is limited to publicly accessible data sets, such as the National Death Index (NDI), VA and VA-linked health records, such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and some records from the Department of Defense (DoD). Non-VA health records that are not included in your VA-linked health records are not requested or obtained by MVP at this time. If in the future MVP expands its research to include non-VA health records, we will contact you with additional information.

The data gathered from MVP is stored indefinitely and will only be used for approved research.

To further help protect your privacy, MVP has a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). With this Certificate, MVP researchers cannot be forced to disclose information that may identify you, even by a court subpoena, in any federal, state, or local civil, criminal, administrative, legislative, or other proceedings so long as the Certificate is in effect. Examples of information that would be protected by the Certificate include: your name, address, social security number or other identifying numbers, or genetic information. The researchers will use the Certificate to resist any demands for information that would identify you, except in situations as follows: in the unlikely event of an audit by the government agency that gave MVP this Certificate, MVP may have to reveal your name, but only to the agency's authorized representatives and as required by the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. This Certificate does not prevent you or a member of your family from voluntarily releasing information about yourself or your involvement in this research. It also does not prevent MVP from taking steps, including reporting to authorities, to prevent serious harm to yourself or others.

If you express intent to harm yourself or others, MVP will notify healthcare professionals or law enforcement officials, as appropriate, to protect you and others.

No. MVP will only contact authorities if you express intent to harm yourself or others. MVP will not provide or disclose any information collected as part of joining MVP. MVP has a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which means that researchers cannot be forced to disclose information that may identify you. The researchers will use the Certificate to resist any demands for information that would identify you.

Researchers are expected to publish results of their research in scientific journals. Other organizations and researchers will access these publications and may have access to summary level results, through platforms such as, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGap). Summary results do not include individual level information about MVP participants. NIH developed dbGaP to archive and distribute the data and results from all kinds of studies funded by the US government that have investigated the interaction of genes and how those genes are expressed in humans. Sharing these summary results is important to advance the world’s knowledge about how genes impact health and illness.

Foreign companies or organizations do not have access to MVP data. Non-US researchers may access limited summary results from MVP research projects through platforms, such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Library of Medicine database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP).

MVP may contract with foreign-owned companies for data generation from biosamples, but the work must be performed in laboratories located in the United States following all federal contracting reviews and regulations. MVP does not share individual level data that would identify any MVP participants with foreign companies or organizations.

VA will not disclose MVP participants’ genetic information to health insurance companies, group health plans, or employers. Researchers with access to your genetic information will take strict measures to maintain your confidentiality.  In the rare event of a security breach, there are state, federal, and VA protections that prevent health insurance companies, group health plans, and most employers from discriminating against you based on your genetic information.

No. Access to MVP systems is strictly regulated and only approved researchers have access to your samples or information. Your information is stored using a unique code - this means any information which can identify you, such as your name, address, social security number and date of birth, are taken off your data and samples and stored separately. MVP grants access to this data for approved research only.

Once you have joined MVP, your information will be collected and used up to and after your death, unless you withdraw from MVP. 

No, we will not disclose any information about you to your relative(s).

While unlikely, there is a rare possibility of breach of confidentiality. If a breach of confidentiality were to occur, MVP would make every effort to protect your information to make sure that your identity does not become known, including following all federal regulations and laws.

All MVP researchers submit research proposals for funding, which include a rigoruous scientific review of the project by experts from organizations such as universities, the private sector, and the government. Veterans’ coded data will be provided to researchers only after the research proposal is approved by the funding agency and IRB approval is obtained.

Consent and protection of participants’ rights are core components of MVP. We take many precautions to protect you and your rights. Our staff will review the informed consent document with you and go over any questions or concerns you may have. Every Veteran who is part of our program chooses to participate—it is completely voluntary, and you can choose not to join or stop participating at any time.

All federally funded research is required to be reviewed by an Institutional Review Board (IRB), which is a separate committee whose function is to protect the rights of human subjects participating in research. The IRB consists of a diverse group of individuals including ethicists, physicians, scientists, clergypersons, and Veterans. The VA Central IRB, which is separate from MVP, conducts annual reviews of MVP. Changes in the protocol (including recruitment materials), consent, HIPAA Authorization, and all MVP research activities are approved by the VA Central IRB before being used.

Additionally, MVP staff are continuously monitoring Veteran experiences in addition to the security of their data. MVP is proactive in identifying and mitigating any potential or actual risks to participants.