Tackling Barriers to Clinical Trial Diversity

Tackling Barriers to Clinical Trial Diversity
Findings From a Collaboration among Community-Focused Organizations in Indiana

While clinical trials remain an essential part of the research required to evaluate the impact of drugs, devices and other interventions on health, most trials fail to adequately enroll individuals from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds. NEHI and Eli Lilly Company (Lilly) recently concluded an 18-month collaboration to improve diverse participation in clinical trials and advance health equity.

Together with leaders from organizations in Indiana with a shared goal of improving clinical trial diversity, which we called the Community-Focused Research Organization (CFRO), NEHI and Lilly identified barriers to clinical trial participation from a range of perspectives, identified ways to overcome these barriers, and implemented a solution to the issue this group identified as a priority: the need to provide additional knowledge and awareness about clinical trials to diverse communities through messengers that those communities trust. The project proved the hypothesis that a group of community leaders, with appropriate support and facilitation, could align on a set of goals and priorities, test solutions, and uncover key learnings for future community-based initiatives.

The project, which recently concluded, identified several key learnings, among them:

Addressing diversity in clinical trials necessitates the active involvement of various community leaders to identify and solve participation barriers.
Trusted messengers, in this case faith-based leaders, effectively raised awareness about clinical trials within underrepresented communities, leveraging their experience and active role in project development.
Projects of this nature require agility and sophisticated project management and facilitation throughout every phase
A project plan should identify ways to mitigate lapses in engagement

A report, scheduled for release in September 2024, will provide details on the identification and prioritization of barriers to clinical trial participation, the proposed solution and launch of the CFRO Board, and the key learnings that can serve as a blueprint for future initiatives.