How Old Beliefs About Clinical Trials Are Holding Us Back

Facts are facts! Without higher levels of participation among Black Americans, we will never unlock the root causes of the disparate impact of illnesses, diseases, and ailments plaguing Black communities today. Every day that African Americans continue to live in fear of clinical trials is another day that we fall further behind in the fight against early deaths and diseases. Yet, studies show Black Americans continue to distrust medical research and clinical trials, apparently a lasting legacy of the infamous Tuskegee experiment which was shut down more than three decades ago. But it’s like a double-edged sword: 1. We don’t want to be in clinical trials because of the major distrust of the American health system. 2. But we need to be in clinical trials to see if any new treatments can help us as well. Such attitudes are keeping minorities from participating in current clinical trials that could save their lives, the researchers added. “We found that minorities are 200 percent more likely to perceive harm coming from participating in research,” said senior study author Dr. Neil Powe, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. While previous studies have shown that Black Americans and...