Opinion: Patient Advocacy Organizations Play a Key Role in Cultivating Diversity for Clinical Trials

One of the biggest concerns in the clinical research space is lack of diversity in study participants across historically underrepresented demographic subgroups. A 2021 study uncovered that more than 40% of 230 US-based trials didn’t report the race of participants -- and of those that did report race, 78% of participants were white. (By contrast, 2020 census data shows that the country is about 60% white.) The pandemic further illustrated these inequities, with COVID-19 hospitalization rates 2.2 times higher for Black Americans compared to white Americans.

Lack of diversity presents both ethical and scientific issues. Not only does underrepresentation deny patients access to promising therapies, but it also hinders the scientific research process as some approved...