New approach to improving clinical trial enrollment and diversity

Before new therapies can reach patients, they must be tested in clinical trials in representative populations to show that they work and are safe. Failure to enroll enough participants in trials can delay the arrival of new therapies in the clinic and inflate their eventual price tags. Failure to recruit diverse patients could diminish the relevance and generalizability of trial findings. For example, a drug that proves effective for White patients might not work as well in people of other races or ethnicities.