A medication works best when we know how it performs in the people who will take it.
For years, clinical trials drew from a narrow slice of the population. Age, genetics, health history, and access to care all influence how someone responds to a drug or device. When a trial excludes groups, doctors have less data to guide treatment for those patients.
Under the Food and Drug Omnibus Reform Act of 2022, sponsors of certain clinical studies must submit a Diversity Action Plan to the FDA with enrollment goals by age group, sex, race, and ethnicity, along with a plan to meet them. The FDA is still working out how it will roll out the requirement, but sponsors know what it asks of them. They need a study population that reflects the people who will use their products.
Community engagement is integral to that plan. Research teams need people on the ground, in neighborhoods, talking face to face with the populations research has often missed. At Remington-Davis (RDI), we've built our recruitment strategy for achieving diversity in clinical research trials.
Watch our recent interview with Dr. Roy St. John for a deeper look at how community connection helps close enrollment gaps. You’ll also find clips from the conversation throughout this blog.
Many people have never been asked about a clinical trial. Some don't know trials exist for their condition. Others distrust medical research. Practical barriers add up as well, from transportation to time off work.
Showing up in person helps close that gap. When our staff meets people at a church health fair, a neighborhood walk, or a senior living community, the conversation happens on familiar ground. People ask questions, get to know us, and decide for themselves. Over time, those repeated conversations build trust that a single outreach campaign can't.
Showing up also opens doors. Someone who never searched for a trial might learn about a study that fits their condition and gives them access to a new treatment option.
Local healthcare providers play a similar role. Patients trust their primary care doctors. When those doctors know about trials nearby, they can refer patients and answer questions in a setting patients already know. We invest in these relationships for the same reason we attend community events. We want to meet people where they are and give them what they need to make an informed choice.
Diversity covers race and ethnicity. It also covers age, income, insurance status, and geography. Each group has its own trusted spaces and ways of getting information, so we use more than one approach to reach them.
Our team shows up at a range of events across central Ohio, each one a chance to reach a different part of the community. In the summer of 2026, we attended a Juneteenth festival and took part in events like a local Black male health awareness walk and a healthy aging expo.
Speaking engagements give us another chance to engage. We visit places like long-term care facilities to talk about clinical trial opportunities. Many studies need older adults, and several of the vaccine trials RDI has conducted focused on adults 50 and older or 60 and older. Many older adults prefer face-to-face conversation, and plenty spend little time on social media, so digital recruitment campaigns miss them. A presentation followed by Q&A gives them room to ask questions and talk it over with family.
Partnerships extend our reach beyond what our staff can do alone. Dr. Roy St. John, one of our physicians at RDI and the leader of our community engagement initiatives, also serves as Chief Medical Officer at the Breathing Association. Many patients have no insurance or limited coverage, and most have heard little about clinical trials or never received an invitation to join one.
Through this partnership, we offer free health screenings that pinpoint which trials a patient may qualify for. Patients who enroll can gain access to medications they could not afford otherwise. The partnership also opens participation to minority populations that research has historically left out.
RDI also has an established partnership with the largest primary care network in central Ohio. This relationship connects clinical research with the place many people go for everyday care. Primary care physicians see patients of every age, background, and zip code. When they know about our studies, more of their patients hear about options that could help them.
Community engagement works both ways. Sometimes we invite people into our space.
RDI routinely hosts health fair days at our site. Screenings range from HbA1c to cholesterol testing to ECGs and pulmonary function tests. Individuals leave with insight into their own health, whether or not they ever join a study. For some, it's the first time in years they've seen those numbers.
These events show people what a research site looks like from the inside. Visitors meet our coordinators, ask questions about the clinical trial process, and see research happen in a welcoming place. Their screening results can also pre-qualify them for studies that match their health profile, saving them time and speeding up enrollment for our sponsors.
Sponsors face a harder enrollment landscape every year. Trials keep growing more complex, and inclusion and exclusion criteria are increasingly strict. Every added criterion shrinks the pool of patients who qualify. Even trials with many sites struggle to hit enrollment targets.
Diversity goals add another layer. A sponsor may need participants who meet strict entry criteria and also reflect the age, race, and ethnicity of the patients who will use the product.
Community presence pays off here. The more people we know in the community, the better our chances of finding the right participants when a hard-to-fill study comes along. Our relationships with community groups, local providers, and patients already in our database give us a broader pool to draw from. They also give us the trust we need for honest conversations about clinical trial participation.
Have a study that needs help reaching a diverse group of participants? We're here to help.
Racial and ethnic minority groups top the list, including Black, Hispanic and Latino, Asian American, and American Indian and Alaska Native communities. Older adults, rural residents, people with lower incomes or no insurance, and people with disabilities also appear in trials at lower rates.
A Diversity Action Plan sets enrollment goals by age group, sex, race, and ethnicity, and explains the reasoning behind those goals and the steps the sponsor will take to meet them. Community engagement has a central role in those steps, because sponsors need sites that can reach the populations named in their enrollment goals.
People worry about side effects, cost, time away from work, receiving a placebo, and being treated like a test subject. Some also distrust research because of past harm to their communities. Community engagement lets them ask questions face to face and hear answers from people they know, which builds the trust they need to make an informed decision.
Diverse trials produce research findings that give doctors better information about how a treatment works across different patients. Broader participation also strengthens trust between research and the communities it serves, which makes future trials easier to fill.
Participants from underrepresented communities often come in with more questions and concerns, and trust built before enrollment carries through the full study. Our team offers individualized support and familiar faces from screening to the final visit, which helps keep participants engaged in the trial process.