Justice, Diversity, and Research Ethics Review

March 19, 2021

(Science) – The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on certain populations, such as Black, Latinx, and Indigenous populations in the United States, has focused attention on inequalities in health and on the need to increase enrollment of racial and ethnic minorities and other underrepresented groups in biomedical research (1). Yet too often, in the United States and globally, participant enrollment in research has not reflected the demographic composition of the general population, those affected by the health conditions being studied, or those for whom the investigational product is intended (2), with racial and ethnic minorities and the young and the elderly, among others, being consistently underrepresented (3).