How Cedars-Sinai Increased Black and Hispanic Clinical Trial Enrollment

Investigators can increase racial and ethnic diversity in clinical trials by updating language used in promotional materials, demonstrating cultural sensitivity and employing digital tools, a new study from Cedars-Sinai shows.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, identified multiple strategies to address low participation rates of non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic patients in a National Institutes of Health-funded trial investigating virtual reality for chronic lower back pain.

“Traditional recruitment strategies have not been effective in reaching these communities,” said Lindsey Ross, MD, assistant professor of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai and first author of the study. “We conducted focus groups with Black and Hispanic patients to understand their concerns and preferences, highlighting barriers to participation such as mistrust, lack of interest, cultural differences and ineffective communication. The insights we gained allowed us to revise our recruitment materials to be more culturally responsive, updating language, imagery and outreach methods. We also used advanced digital tools to scan electronic medical records and micro-target eligible Black and Hispanic patients for the trial.”

After these changes were implemented, recruitment of Hispanic participants into the trial more than quadrupled, and recruitment of Black participants showed a notable upward trend. Ross said these results demonstrate that culturally adapted recruitment strategies and digital targeting tools can play a critical role in improving clinical trial diversity, and offer actionable insights for researchers aiming to bridge the gap in clinical trial representation of diverse communities.

Authors: Samuel Eberlein, Carine Khalil, So Yung Choi, Karma McKelvey, Brennan M. R. Spiegel.

Funding: Open access funding provided by SCELC, Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)/National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) through the Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) Research Program as a part of the NIH HEAL Initiative [UH3AR076573-03S1].