Top 3 Do's And Don'ts To Boost Diversity In Clinical Trials

By Darcy Grabenstein, Senior Manager of Content Marketing Strategy, Citeline

As the race for a coronavirus vaccine has painfully brought to light, minority groups remain grossly underrepresented in clinical trials. A recent study of all published COVID-19 treatment-related clinical research studies with participants in the United States revealed that one-third of the studies did not report race or ethnicity data. One study did not even collect race data among participants. The study revealed that Black patients were underrepresented in all studies relative to the burden of disease among the Black communities in which these studies took place.

Lack of diversity spans all disease states and demographics. Why is it important that these groups be represented in clinical trials? As we’ve seen with COVID-19, individuals from minority groups often have higher incidences of certain diseases. Plus, patients can respond differently to medical treatments, oftentimes with adverse or fatal reactions, due their ethnicity.