Welcome back to Second Opinion.
Representation is a beautiful thing, and yet so often escapes recognition. In a world of seven billion, representation takes us from being unheard voices to being whole people who can create real change that affects so many.
The healthcare industry was built by loud voices; by those who recognised what needed to be done, what needed to change, and making it happen for so many patients around the world. That being said, there are so many voices that remain unheard – in our industry, in our meeting rooms, and most crucially, in our clinical trials.
Clinical trial cohorts which do not accurately reflect the demographics of the diseases they are working to solve means that we are creating medicines which do not effectively treat broad groups of patients. In fact, this lack of diversity in clinical trials may even harm patients in the long term.
Recognising the risks of low clinical diversity, clinical authorities around the world are now bringing about regulations which focus on how trials are designed, with an aim to promote clinical diversity. First up among them is an upcoming regulation from the FDA.
Stick around to read about why clinical trial diversity is so important, and what the FDA and other authorities are doing to jumpstart it.
I also got to sit down with the author of this piece, Amy Hannaford to dig deeper into why we’re talking about clinical trial diversity – and why we should be optimistic about this trend. Look out for that next week on our usual channels via Spotify, Apple and Soundcloud!