Health equity demands that clinical trial participants include a wide range of patients from diverse communities. This not only helps to reduce biases, it also contributes to more innovative science. Because people often experience disease differently, clinical trial enrollment needs to reflect diversity in race, ethnicity, sex and, often, age, in order to ensure that all communities benefit from scientific discoveries and advances. And, without the ability to account for the socioeconomic experience of patients affected by a disease, medical trials may not be able to accurately address its impact.

This can be challenging, however, as traditional recruitment and enrollment strategies and tools don’t necessarily support equity and inclusion. Among certain communities, mistrust in clinical research and medical institutions has been engendered by historical incidents, such as a failure to obtain formal agreements or to communicate the risks of a study.