Opinion: Community engagement is key to clinical trial recruitment and diversity

Clinical trials in the United States have been plagued for years by two well-known problems: They don’t recruit enough people and they fail to reflect the diversity of our nation.

The good news is that solving the diversity problem can resolve both issues. Two birds, one stone.

Researchers whose job it is to fill clinical trials with participants have begun teaming up with tech companies to find modern solutions to this long-standing problem. This approach, however, is just a temporary patch to a problem that requires a longer, more sustained remedy.

First, the facts: 25% of cancer trials as many participants as they need, and 18% of trials close with fewer than half of do not reach recruitment targets within their specified time periods.