2016: The Year of Diversity in Clinical Trials

By Robert M. Califf, M.D.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 27, 2016) — Controlled clinical trials provide a critical base of evidence for evaluating whether a medical product is effective before the product is approved for marketing. One challenge that remains for FDA is ensuring that research participants are representative of the patients who will use the medical product.

Moving from the result of a clinical trial to applying it in practice is complex. But it’s generally agreed that the composition of the population enrolled in a trial should help FDA reviewers, clinicians, or policy makers to have confidence that the trial results will apply to future practice.

Furthermore, a wide range of people should have the opportunity to participate in trials, both for access to new therapies and to have the chance to contribute to better treatment of everyone, an important altruistic goal for many Americans. MORE