Barts Health NHS Trust is working to increase the participation of Black communities in health research after data showed that only one in 50 people involved in the COVID-19 clinical trials was Black.
While this number for Barths Health is higher than the national average, Barts have acknowledged that more needed to be done to diversify healthcare research given that one in five people served by the trust are Black, Black Caribbean or Black African.
The trust note that the pandemic highlighted some of the varied and complex reasons that people from these communities can be reluctant to take part, including mistrust, socio-economic barriers and lack of adequate engagement from the research community.
Without suitable representation during research, the trust add, the wider research community and the public cannot be completely confident that the treatments, tests, or vaccines will benefit everyone, especially with diseases that disproportionately affect the Black community including COVID-19 and hypertension.
Dr Vanessa Apea, Barts Health Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV, commented that “having this solid data thanks to rigorous record taking confirms our long-held speculation that the proportion of individuals from Black communities taking part in our clinical trials is too low. And we need to fix it.”
To address this, Barts Health is creating a range of educational materials in varying languages to further understand diseases and their impact. In addition, they are continuing their work with local communities to demystify research.
The trust has begun to employ bilingual research health advocates which will support both patients and researchers at appointments, and will act on behalf of the patient, especially during the consent process.
Work has also begun with Health Data Research UK, which has a Health Data Science Black Internship Programme to encourage people to become representatives for public and patient involvement, so that more can have their say in how research is designed and carried out.
Dr Apea added: “From explaining the need for their participation in clinical trials, to the work of our outreach vaccination programme, delivering jabs across Northeast London, we’ve made good inroads. We now need to build on this to engage them with our research and give it even more credibility.”
