BlackDoctor Pro’s 3rd Annual Clinical Trials Virtual Summit brought together healthcare professionals, researchers, patient advocates, and industry leaders to discuss a longstanding issue in medical research: the underrepresentation of Black Americans in clinical trials. For clinicians, this summit offered valuable insights into improving representation in clinical trials and highlighted pathways for providers to become more involved in research.
With Black patients continuing to be disproportionately affected by chronic disease, finding new ways to build trust and improve participation in clinical trials could lead to more targeted treatments and better outcomes for diverse populations.
Despite Black Americans making up about 14 percent of the U.S. population, only 5-7 percent enroll in clinical trials. Pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions have made efforts to increase participation in clinical trials. Yet, a larger problem remains: many Black patients are still unaware of these opportunities — and many may lack the education, support, and resources to remain enrolled.
“The number one reason why [Black people] don’t participate is that they aren’t asked,” Dr. Crawford said. “If you know a trial is going to save your life, you’re more likely to participate.”
In some cases, providers themselves aren’t knowledgeable about open trials, and navigating platforms such as ClinicalTrials.gov can be challenging. If providers aren’t well-versed in medical research, how can they educate their patients and encourage them to participate?
And even when a provider introduces a patient to clinical trials, they may not realize that these trials offer closely monitored, cutting-edge care alongside standard treatment. “The quality of care in a clinical trial is much better than what you get in a typical care setting,” Fairley said.
“A clinical trial is like concierge medicine,” Dr. Crawford added.
Providers must educate themselves on clinical trials and ensure their patients — particularly those from underserved populations — are aware of opportunities to try potentially life-saving treatment.
Patients can face significant barriers to participating in clinical trials — from work hours and childcare to transportation challenges and the distance to research sites. Bolds-Johnson shared that she once had to bring her children along on a one-hour trip to get labs done for a clinical trial. When she arrived, the research team turned her away because she had brought her children. For patients who may face childcare challenges during trials, this could pose a significant retention issue.
Some participants can feel like “guinea pigs” in clinical trials, underscoring the need for more humanization in medical research. The panelists shared how patient navigators and advocacy organizations can serve as a “bridge” between the research team and patients. “Pharma can’t talk to patients — they have to go through us,” Fairley said.
Advocacy organizations can also play a role in how future trials are designed and conducted. “Advocacy organizations bring humanity to the pharmaceutical companies,” Dr. Crawford said. “The more we push, the more we are invited to the table to discuss how to improve clinical trials.”
More stakeholder involvement in clinical trial recruitment can also be beneficial. “Stakeholders should not feel like they can only speak on clinical trials,” Gabriel said. She emphasized that these conversations are opportunities to show patients they are cared for as people, not just potential trial participants.
During the panel, leading voices discussed exclusion criteria in clinical trials that disproportionately affect marginalized communities, the perception of an “ideal participant,” how researchers can make research more inclusive, and how pharmaceutical companies must be held accountable to ensure trials are representative of the real world.
When it comes to diversifying clinical trials, researchers often focus on recruitment, but the initial problem may be the trial’s design. While exclusion criteria are designed to protect patient safety and preserve data integrity, they can also exclude underserved populations from participating in research.
“The majority of participants [in clinical trials] are middle-aged white males,” Dr. Dash said.
In addition, patients with uncontrolled diabetes or high blood pressure, older adults, and people living in rural areas may be disqualified from several opportunities.
To develop more diverse patient populations, the speakers emphasized the need to meet people where they are and involve them in trial design. “We have to have patients be part of developing the trial itself,” Gober said. “They can get more buy-in and share education with their community.”
Understanding what the study entails and providing informed consent can be challenging for many participants, leading to hesitation or refusal to participate in a clinical trial. Panelists discussed the importance of implementing culturally appropriate language throughout the process.
“We have to get the language right,” Gober said.
Although more diverse participants are often the focus, there’s also a need for more people of color working in clinical trial research. “We must support other women and men of color in clinical research,” Gober said. “ It is good to see infrastructure built and run by us, as it can give us a sense of safety. We have to support one another.”
AI continues to play a growing role in medicine. While we’ve seen it reduce physician burnout, improve workflows, and strengthen patient-provider relationships, it still has a few major flaws — one of which is bias.
When patients — especially those of color — use AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude for medical advice, they may encounter inaccurate or potentially harmful health information.
To support Black patients and culturally sensitive providers, BlackDoctor is launching two AI initiatives: Health on Point and Wellbot. Health on Point is an AI avatar (a Black physician) that patients can use to ask health-related questions.
“Health on Point is an AI replica that can do assessment and patient education, but it’s like you’re talking to a real person,” O’Brien said.
It’s not meant to replace a diagnosis from a licensed professional, but it can be a helpful advisor — providing information that patients can share with their provider. Health on Point also includes guardrails designed to reduce medical misinformation.
“We’re not using AI because it’s ‘cool,’” O’Brien said. “We’re using it as a tool that can make an impact in the community and also care.”
For smaller clinical trial sites and clinics without significant funding, the speakers say Health on Point can be especially beneficial, as the AI avatar could assist with patient assessments and intake.
Wellbot is a provider-facing AI simulation tool that can train physicians on how certain diseases and conditions affect patients of color. Users are presented with AI patient cases that simulate real-world clinical interactions.
This initiative is meant to support Black and culturally sensitive providers. “I want to make tools for our HCPs, because they don’t always get the first-to-market, and are not always considered when tailoring AI tools,” O’Brien explained.
O’Brien said that the new AI tools are “two keys that fit one big combo lock,” underscoring how they work synergistically to improve care delivery for underserved populations.
We’re seeing rapid technological evolution in medicine — from AI to wearable technology. Those changes are also evident in clinical trials through decentralization, reshaping how research is conducted and how patients access care.
However, advances in technology do not erase long-standing medical mistrust among Black Americans, which systemic inequities, implicit bias, and historical abuses such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study have shaped.
In the final panel of our Clinical Trials Virtual Summit, speakers discussed the intersection of digital tools, health equity, and clinical trials — and the challenges they may pose for trust, accessibility, privacy, and digital literacy.
Panelists emphasized that digital tools and decentralized clinical trials could help researchers reach patients who have historically been excluded from medical research. Mobile technology, wearable devices, telehealth, and AI-powered systems may make it easier to identify eligible participants, engage patients remotely, and improve access to care.
“Innovation and AI are really going to help us close gaps,” Dr. Gary said. “We’re going to move at the speed of ‘now.’”
Dr. Farkouh added that technology may help researchers identify patients who otherwise may not get access to clinical trial opportunities or specialty care.
At the same time, speakers stressed that innovation alone cannot solve longstanding inequities in healthcare. “All technology innovations don’t always get to the people who need it the most,” Dr. Harris said.
The panelists also discussed how the “digital divide” continues to affect underserved populations, particularly low-income patients, older adults, and rural communities. Although wearable devices and digital health monitoring tools are becoming more common, they remain financially out of reach for many patients.
“The average income of a person with a wearable device is $75,000,” Dr. Gary said. “Not everybody has access to these things.”
Even as technology becomes more integrated into medicine, the panelists emphasized that trust and representation remain essential for improving participation in clinical trials.
“When offered a clinical trial, a Black patient is as likely to say yes as a white patient,” Dr. Harris said, highlighting that access and outreach — not willingness — are often the bigger barriers.
Speakers also emphasized the importance of culturally responsive AI and diverse representation in research datasets. “Research from diverse perspectives is important, and the publication of that is also important because AI is being trained on a database that is already biased culturally and ethnically,” Dr. Saunders-Russell explained.
The speakers stressed that underserved populations must be included early in the development of emerging technologies and that patients should be educated about privacy, consent, and data use.
“We have to develop a relationship with the patients,” Dr. Farkouh said. “Having someone they trust that’s representing them is important.”
Across all four panels, one message remained consistent throughout the summit: increasing representation in clinical trials goes beyond meeting recruitment goals. It requires long-term investment in community trust, inclusive research design, clinician leadership, and equitable innovation. At this year’s summit, BlackDoctor Pro spotlighted strategies that could help shape a more inclusive and patient-centered future for medical research.
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