Abstract

Annette is the CEO and founder of Egality, a start-up connecting culturally diverse communities with health research and clinical trials. This will be a practical and true to life presentation on the challenges, and opportunities, for life science industry professionals and the sector to improve diversity In health research and clinical trials. It will cover the following points: • The lack of diversity in health research and clinical trials, how this has been highlighted in the last 18 months, and the impact of this on drug discovery and societal health • The barriers to engaging under-represented people and communities in health research and clinical trials, based on available literature and Egality’s own focus groups with community leaders • How working with community organisations can address these barriers, including case studies where medical research charities and academic institutions have worked successfully with community organisations • Practical advice on how life science professionals can engage a representative population in health research and clinical trials, and the impact this could have for their work • A vision, for how the life science industry can take a cross-sector approach to improving diversity in health research and clinical trials, and the impact this could have for drug discovery The presentation will include insights from the community leaders who are members of Egality’s Advisory Board, and have been working with Egality over the past year to increase diversity in health research and clinical trials.