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closeSupporting Diversity Promise
Posted by mwparker on 05 Jan 2016 at 18:42 GMT
Response to Diversity in Clinical Biomedical Research: A Promise Yet to be.
Excellent article.
Many of the statements and conclusions have been voiced elsewhere. Despite these observations, no consistent change regarding the conduct of clinical research in minority communities is apparent. There will remain a paucity of “trusted” minority clinician/scientists engaged in clinical research study for two immediate reasons. First, the pipeline for minority clinician/scientists is nearly nonexistent. Second, there has been limited commitment to actively train, retrain or support existing minority faculty for this task outside of an institution that is historic for training minority health professionals (Howard, Meharry, and Morehouse). The Revitalization Act that is intended to...” re-catalyze diversity in biomedical research…” is an important step but, academic medical centers must be fully committed to implementing those changes that will achieve the desired outcome.
Community engagement of minority communities demands respect for the targeted population, a dedicated financial effort for educational outreach-recruitment, and the professional development of both minority investigators and coordinators consistent with the targeted population. Research recruitment is frequently a task assigned to enthusiastic college graduates with aspirations of medical school, rather than an experienced individual from the targeted community who is invested in the people there. The cultivation of an informed, engaged African American population in neurologic research at the Emory ADRC, has been possible because an African American physician, with strong professional and community credentials, leveraged them to develop community engagement through formal educational programs, featuring clinical scientists, that explain the important connections between brain health, chronic disease, and the importance of minority participation in clinical research for effective disease prevention or treatment. 22derived from limited data obtained in small “funded” studies, conducted by non-minority scientists, focused primarily or solely on minority populations, should NOT be generalizable to a whole population; nor should an investigator be deemed an “expert” merely because they can successfully navigate a funding mechanism. The trivialization of contributions by minority clinician/scientists or research volunteers, undermines the importance of diversity in biomedical research.