Nurses' Health Study 3

What Nurses' Health Study 3 does

Nurses' Health Study 3 (NHS3) is a non-profit, longitudinal cohort research study founded in 2010 and operated through the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It is the third generation of the Nurses' Health Studies (following NHS in 1976 and NHS II in 1989) and recruits nurses and nursing students aged 18 and over in the US and Canada to complete online questionnaires every six months on health, lifestyle, occupational, and environmental factors. NHS3's core technology platform combines web-based questionnaires (REDCap-hosted), the Beiwe smartphone application for digital phenotyping (location and accelerometry), Fitbit wearable integration via Fitabase, research-grade accelerometers (Actisleep), home environmental sampling kits, and a biorepository storing over 3.2 million biological specimens across the broader NHS program.

NHS3 supplements its main questionnaire with a portfolio of NIH-funded sub-studies covering biospecimen collection, sleep and physical activity validation, home environment chemical sampling (NHEST), maternal health and biology, and mammographic image analysis. The study has no commercial revenue model: participation is free, there is no pricing or licensing structure, and operations are funded entirely by federal research grants, primarily from the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI, NIEHS, NICHD). Its "customers" are research participants (free, distributed) and academic/medical researchers who access pooled data and biospecimens, with outputs published in peer-reviewed journals including JAMA, Am J Public Health, and Annals of Internal Medicine and cited in policy decisions including the FDA trans fat ban, US Dietary Guidelines, and Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

Name

Nurses' Health Study 3

Legal name

Nurses' Health Study 3

Website

https://nhs3.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

NHS3 is a non-profit, NIH-funded longitudinal cohort research study recruiting nurses and nursing students across the US and Canada to complete biannual online questionnaires and biospecimen sub-studies, generating data that has shaped US dietary, physical activity, and FDA policies since 1976.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Longitudinal Epidemiological Research

NAICS

Health Care and Social Assistance (62)

SIC

Services-Health Services (8000)

akta.pro primary industry

Health Statistics & Reporting (National/State/Local Indicators) (HLAJAJAC)

Keywords

• Longitudinal cohort research
• Epidemiological health study
• Digital phenotyping research
• Biorepository biospecimen study
• Wearable health monitoring study

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. NIH Grant Funding: Primary funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). The study receives grant funding for specific research projects including breast cancer, migraines, and other health topics.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

NHS3 is a longitudinal cohort research study that recruits nurses and nursing students to complete online health questionnaires every six months and participate in optional sub-studies. It collects self-reported health, lifestyle, occupational, and environmental data, supplemented by biospecimens (blood, urine, stool, DNA), wearable device metrics, smartphone-based digital phenotyping, home environmental sampling, and mammographic imaging to support research on cancer, cardiovascular disease, reproductive health, mental health, occupational exposures, and environmental health.

Product overview

Nurses' Health Study 3 is a longitudinal cohort research study, not a commercial product company. The study offers a unified online questionnaire platform as its core product, supplemented by multiple specialized sub-studies that collect additional biological, environmental, and behavioral data. The sub-studies include: the Beiwe Smartphone Sub-study for digital phenotyping; Biospecimen Collection for blood, urine, and stool samples; Sleep Sub-study and SPAVS for wearable sleep monitoring; NHEST for home environmental sampling; Maternal Health, Maternal Biology Sub-study for pregnancy research; and the Mammogram Study for breast cancer risk assessment. Infrastructure includes the NHS3 Biorepository and the BEACON research initiative for built environment analysis.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• NHS3 Main Study Questionnaires Online longitudinal questionnaire platform collecting health data every six months from nurses and nursing students, covering demographics, medical history, health-related behaviors, occupational and residential information, and reproductive history.
• Beiwe Smartphone Sub-study Research smartphone application that collects GPS location and accelerometry data over one year to study health impacts of physical activity, sleep, and local environment. Developed by the Onnela Lab at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for iOS and Android.
• Biospecimen Collection Sub-study Collection of blood, urine, and stool samples from participants through Quest Diagnostics Patient Service Centers to study biological markers associated with cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases. Samples stored at the BWH/Harvard Cohorts Biorepository.
• Sleep Sub-study Fitbit-based sleep monitoring study collecting 14-day sleep diaries and wearable device data to evaluate the impact of sleep behaviors on cardiovascular and metabolic health markers, combined with biomarker data from Biospecimen Collection.
• Sleep and Physical Activity Validation Sub-study (SPAVS) Validation study comparing Fitbit and Beiwe smartphone measurements against research-grade Actisleep accelerometers over 14 days to determine accuracy of consumer wearables for sleep and physical activity measurement.
• Nurses' Home Environment Sub-study (NHEST) Environmental sample collection including air quality monitoring, wristband chemical exposure sampling, tap water sampling, and dust collection to study how home environment chemicals affect health.
• Maternal Health, Maternal Biology Sub-study Pregnancy-focused study collecting blood and hair samples during pregnancy to assess biomarkers related to stress, immune function, inflammation, and thyroid function, examining mind-body interplay before and during pregnancy.
• Mammogram Study Collection and analysis of digital mammograms to understand how environmental factors and social drivers of health influence mammographic features and breast cancer risk markers.

Quantifiable outcome

• Informed US trans fat ban by FDA
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability8 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and supporting.

• Brigham and Women's HospitalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerBWH serves as the institutional host for NHS3, providing research infrastructure, institutional review board oversight through Partners Human Research Committee, and access to the BWH/Harvard Cohorts Biorepository. The Channing Division of Network Medicine at BWH leads the study operations.
• Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHarvard TH Chan provides academic leadership, investigator expertise, and research methodology. Key investigators including Dr. Jorge Chavarro, Dr. Francine Laden, and Dr. Jaime Hart hold appointments at the school. The Onnela Lab developed the Beiwe app.
• Onnela Lab (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)coreTechnology or IntegrationDeveloped the Beiwe smartphone application used for data collection in NHS3, collecting location, accelerometry, and sleep pattern data from participants.
• Quest DiagnosticssupportingImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerProvides patient service centers across the US where NHS3 participants go for blood draws as part of biospecimen collection sub-studies.
• FitabasesupportingTechnology or IntegrationSecure research platform that delivers Fitbit sleep and activity data from participants to NHS3 research team. Enables encrypted data collection and storage.
• FedExsupportingOthersProvides prepaid shipping services for returning NHS3 sub-study kits including air quality monitors, wristbands, and biological sample collection materials.
• Growing Up Today Study (GUTS)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCompanion cohort study enrolling children of NHS II participants. NHS3 and GUTS collaborate on shared sub-studies including the Beiwe smartphone app, enabling cross-generational research.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Emerging players

• Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program: A NIH-funded pediatric cohort program studying environmental exposures on child health outcomes across 200+ cohorts. Comparable as a federally funded multimodal cohort with overlapping NIH institute funders (NIEHS, NICHD) and shared interest in exposomics, sleep, and maternal-child health; relevant as both a collaborator and a competing draw on the same NIH funding pool.
• Million Veteran Program (VA): A VA-funded precision-medicine cohort targeting 1M+ US veterans with deep genomic and EHR data. Comparable as a federally funded large-scale cohort using digital recruitment and biospecimen collection, but focused on a different (older, male-skewed, veteran) population than NHS3; relevant as a potential pooling/consortium partner and a competing draw on NIH/VA research attention.

Regional players

• Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Health (CanPath): A Canada-wide prospective cohort of 330,000+ participants harmonizing data across regional cohorts. Comparable as a population-scale longitudinal cohort with biospecimen collection and digital phenotyping, and directly relevant because NHS3 recruits in Canadian provinces — CanPath is the primary regional partner/competitor for Canadian participants and environmental health research.

Direct peers

• Framingham Heart Study: A multigenerational longitudinal cardiovascular cohort study begun in 1948, operated under NHLBI funding and affiliated with Boston University. Directly comparable as one of the foundational US longitudinal cohorts; Framingham shares NHS3's NHLBI funding source, cardiovascular research focus, and transgenerational design, and represents the historical template NHS3 builds upon.
• UK Biobank: A UK-based prospective cohort of 500,000+ participants with extensive genomic, imaging, wearable, and health-record data. Directly comparable as the largest and most-cited modern population cohort; UK Biobank is the global benchmark NHS3 is implicitly measured against on data breadth, multimodal integration, and external researcher access.
• Nurses' Health Study (NHS, 1976 cohort): The original 1976 Nurses' Health Study cohort of 122,000 female nurses, operated by the same Channing Division of Network Medicine and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health team. Directly comparable because it shares the same investigator network, biospecimen biorepository, research methodology, and participant recruitment model — essentially NHS3's parent study and most direct comparator.
• Sister Study (NIEHS): An NIEHS-funded prospective cohort of 50,000+ sisters of breast cancer patients, focused on environmental and genetic risk factors for breast cancer and other conditions. Directly comparable because it shares NIEHS as a key funder with NHS3, recruits a health-engaged female population, collects biospecimens and environmental exposure data, and addresses overlapping disease endpoints (breast cancer, environmental health).
• NIH All of Us Research Program: A landmark NIH precision-medicine cohort targeting 1 million+ participants across the US, with deep electronic health record, genomic, and biospecimen data. Directly comparable as a large-scale, federally funded longitudinal cohort with digital data collection and a public-health translational mandate — All of Us is the primary US competitor for NIH cohort funding and scientific attention.
• Nurses' Health Study II (NHS II, 1989 cohort): The 1989 second-generation Nurses' Health Study cohort of 116,686 nurses, run by the same institutions as NHS3. Directly comparable as a sister cohort using identical longitudinal questionnaire methodology, the same biorepository, and overlapping investigator team; its existence as a parallel platform for replication and pooled analyses is a structural feature of NHS3's research model.
• Growing Up Today Study (GUTS): A companion longitudinal cohort study of children of NHS II participants, established in 1996 and explicitly partnered with NHS3 on shared sub-studies including the Beiwe smartphone app. Directly comparable because it operates under the same Channing/Harvard infrastructure, uses the same recruitment and digital phenotyping methodology, and enables the multi-generational research that distinguishes NHS3 from non-family-linked cohort studies.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses3 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/nhs3
• Facebookfacebook.com/NHS3.org
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/nurses-health-study-3
• Instagraminstagram.com/nurseshealthstudy3

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Nurses' Health Study 3