Highlights:
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When it comes to public health or medical research, there shouldn’t be any study about minority communities that doesn’t include minority communities. In failing to engage with stakeholders from racial, gender, or other underrepresented groups, researchers run the risk of perpetuating health equity barriers that result in health disparities.
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These kinds of diversity issues can be really dangerous, considering the impact that clinical research can have on the medical field. According to Fields, not including certain populations in the clinical trial process can overlook an entire understanding of disease. For example, some of the oldest research about heart disease only looked at men, something that ultimately disadvantaged women experiencing heart disease because the illness manifested differently in them. Including women in the first studies about heart disease would have circumvented that issue.
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In 2020, the NIH offered up some data about the race of researchers receiving certain types of grants in 2018. The data showed a 10 percent funding gap between Black and White researchers when controlling for factors like proportion of grant applications. When controlling for relevant factors, Black researchers received 2 percent of RO1 grants. As NIH continues its work to fund more Black researchers, Fields said it should also create requirements for more diversity within a trial participant pool.
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