13 Jul Outreach vital to advancing clinical trial diversity

By Michael Causey, The Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP)

The clinical trial industry must be proactive and transparent in its communications with underserved communities with less access to healthcare resources and a wariness about participating in medical research, Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president and CEO of Morehouse School of Medicine, told attendees of an event sponsored July 11 by The Washington Post.

Morehouse School received a $40 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and used some of those funds to “immediately go out to the community and form partnerships with grassroots organizations that would build trust between us and the community so that people would go get tested” for the COVID-19 virus, Rice said.

“We then partnered with many agencies to make sure that we could address some of the social determinants of health, including making sure that people would have access to testing, transportation to testing, [and] that when they got to the emergency room they would be treated adequately,” she added. Read more …