Dr Mitzi Joi Williams: We Must Raise Awareness of the Importance of Clinical Trial Participation

Mitzi Joi Williams, MD, FAAN, medical director and CEO of Joi Life Wellness Neurology Clinic, discusses how underrepresentation of minority population patients in clinical trials became an issue and how education and raising awareness can begin to remedy it. She sat down for this interview as part of our coverage of this year’s American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting.

Transcript

How can clinicians effectively partner with underrepresented communities to better their participation in MS trials?

Underrepresentation in clinical trials is a huge issue, not just with multiple sclerosis [MS], but really with all areas of disease, even ones that occur very commonly in these populations, such as diabetes, heart disease, etc. I think that we got here because many of our trials are conducted globally, particularly with multiple sclerosis, because the incidence hadn't been recognized as so high in these populations. Most of our trials are conducted in Eastern Europe, where we know there's a very high prevalence of multiple sclerosis. So I think we got here because we were going to populations where we know MS occurs, and patients can enroll in trials very quickly.

I think that the way we overcome this is first recognizing that this is a problem. And I think that it's important for industry partners, as well as medical facilities, academic centers, even private practice MS centers, to partner with the community with trusted voices to raise awareness about the importance of participation in clinical research, to educate the public about clinical research, but also to ask people to be involved in trials and not assume that they don't want to be involved. I think that when we add all of those efforts together we will begin to see a change in the demographics of our clinical research.