Making Clinical Trials More Accessible for Black Americans, Digitally

Kendal K. Whitlock As a woman of color who has dedicated my career to elevating the understanding of scientific data in the context of clinical research and care, I have witnessed firsthand how minorities have been historically underrepresented in clinical trials. My passion stemmed in part, from personal experiences—a life-threatening drug reaction that hospitalized me and took me out of school for a semester, and the sudden loss of my college boyfriend’s father to a heart attack at age 44—these pivotal moments made me hyper curious about medications, and equity across sub-populations (e.g. gender, race, age).  The lack of Black Americans in clinical trials In my roles in the pharmaceutical industry, I engaged with clinician research thought-leaders who told me how new drugs often did not have the same efficacy or safety profiles in their diverse patients compared to the trial data. For example, some medicines, in their experience,  had more side effects or needed higher doses to achieve comparable results in diverse patients. I realized if drugs are primarily tested in white males, comprising roughly 75 percent of trial subjects, that leaves knowledge gaps about how they will perform in women, minority racial/ethnic groups, older adults, and other underrepresented...