Physician Roundtable: Diversity In Clinical Trials

COVID-19 is disproportionately affecting people from minority communities. A recent article highlighted among the 350,000 people who have registered for these clinical trials, only 10% of participants are Black or Latino. This is a staggering figure given that more than half of the reported cases in the U.S. have been among Black and Latino populations.

As bringing research to these communities was challenging prior to the pandemic because electronic health record (EHR) data used to identify patients does not disclose demographic information, it is difficult to track patients for inclusion. With the lack of trust minority communities extend toward the clinical research community, especially due to the Tuskegee study and the unethical treatment of Henrietta Lacks, truly inclusive research still has a long way to go.

Elligo Health Research had the opportunity to sit down (virtually) with physicians across our network to tackle the issue of diversity in clinical research. Here’s what they had to say.