S Thompson; A Hilliard; C Javanmardi; M Larose-Pierre; S Darling Reed; J Spates
DIVISION OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY (AH, SDR)
DIVISION OF PHARMACY PRACTICE, COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES, INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC HEALTH, FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY (ST, JC, JS, MLP)
PURPOSE
Coupled with overall hesitation to trust distributed medical information, minorities are historically reluctant to participate in clinical trials and less likely to know what is involved in clinical trial participation. The purpose of the study was to evaluate healthcare providers’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes toward increasing minority participation in clinical trials including COVID-19 clinical trials.
DESIGN METHODS
Four focus groups consisting of 5-8 individuals per group were held virtually via Zoom in three Florida cities: Tallahassee, Jacksonville, and Tampa between December 2022 and March 2023. The participants were comprised multicultural healthcare providers that included physicians, nurses, pharmacists, mental health counselors, as well as medical and pharmacy students. Participants were asked questions that would help build training and educational tools to enhance minority participation in clinical trials. Data analysis following the verbatim transcription of recordings by trained transcribers consisted of data organization, coding, and analysis using NVivo 14 qualitative software.
RESULTS / EXPECTED RESULTS
There were 27 healthcare participants. 82.76% identified as Black and 17.24% identified as White. 16% were nurses, 28% as pharmacists, 28% as pharmacy students, 4% as physicians, and 4% were community health care workers. Most participants regardless of healthcare role identified that there is a lack of information about clinical trial participation, in general and for COVID-19 trials. Participants agreed that increasing minority clinical trial participation can be partially achieved by patient education and trainings on misinformation and facts.
DISCUSSION / CONCLUSION
Although there are numerous environmental differences between the cities surveyed, medical providers agreed that their minority patients, particularly African American patients, voiced medical distrust in our healthcare system, with a heavy concentration on clinical trials and COVID-19 clinical trials. The healthcare providers surveyed provided insight on the availability of access to clinical trial information, the benefits of clinical trials, willingness of their patients to participate, and the benefits of encouraging minority clinical trial participation.
GRANT SUPPORT
This project is supported by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Minority Health and Health Equity of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of a financial assistance award [FAIN] totaling $707280.00 with 100 percent funded by FDA OMHHE/HHS. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by FDA/HHS, or the U.S. Government.