In the latest Healthcare DataWake episode, President & GM, Healthcare Adam Mariano hosts Mary Stutts, CEO of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Association, Stanford Health Care’s first-ever Global Chief Health Equity & Inclusion Officer and previous Head of Corporate Relations at Genentech. Mary and Adam discuss the need for better representation of women and minorities in healthcare leadership and clinical positions, diversity needs in clinical trial recruitment and more. The lively back-and-forth discussion includes not only insights and potential remedies but also personal stories and experiences that expose barriers to care and ways to break them down.
Adam: Can you tell us a little bit about why we really need more equitable representation from women in healthcare leadership, whether it’s health systems, health tech companies, pharma, etc.?
Mary: What we're seeing in healthcare is while women are very active and they are the majority of the health care workforce, as you go further up the ladder, women are not there. It's more male dominated. And that's a problem because we need women in decision-making roles. If women are not in these decision-making roles at these higher levels, then the best decisions just won't always be made.
And even when you look at health equity, we are seeing that the majority of the health equity innovation is coming from women. And the reason is that women have worked in healthcare their entire career, entry level and worked their way up. They know what needs to happen. They have a pretty good sense.
Adam: Similar to needing more representation of women, is there need for more representation of minorities?
Mary: Our healthcare workforce has to be representative of the patient population. I mean, let's face it, people most trust people who look like them, all of us. That is an inherent bias. It's not necessarily wrong. It just is what it is. So, it's going to be very important for us to have workforces that are representative of the patient populations. And we also have to make sure that people understand about cultural humility and listening to people and respecting people.
Adam: And what about equitable and diverse representation in clinical trials?
Mary: Yes, the clinical research piece, I would say is a big factor. I actually did the first diversity and clinical trials initiative when I was at Genentech in the mid-2000s. And it's sad to say that a lot of the things that we found then, we are still seeing now. We found when we did that very extensive data with Baylor University and the cancer research organization and the Chronic Disease organization, that women – no matter what their race or ethnicity was – women and people of color were not being offered the option to participate in clinical trials. And what we also found was when the newest, most innovative therapies were launched, women and people of color were not being offered the option to go on those new therapies.
And we are still seeing that today. There's been a little bit of improvement with women. When you look at things that are specifically for women, there are more therapies out there that are specifically for women. But otherwise, when it comes to all these other disease states, you're still not seeing it.
So, at the end, it's about options.
Adam: What are your thoughts about the notion that people of color, specifically, don’t want to participate in clinical trials?
Mary: It's always this misinterpretation that women and minorities don't want to participate in clinical studies. But to your point, what we find in study after study is they're just not being offered the opportunity when offered to participate at the same levels as all other populations. And we found that when you look at African-Americans, when you explain to them about the benefit of the research to their children and families and that longer term impact, they are actually more prone to do it.
Adam: With early clinical research, we know we have to change recruiting, but is there any other spot beyond that you think would be a really easy place for us to engage and uplift?
Mary: I would say, what are we doing about improving access to new therapies and care? Most innovative therapies are not even being offered to diverse populations. There’s also a business case for inclusion, and inclusive marketing, and making sure that you are reaching everyone who should be on your therapy is huge. And as an industry, we're not doing a good enough job of reaching all of the patients who should be on your therapy. This is why having data, and making sure we’re doubling down on data, and drawing attention to those areas where we need to make improvement, is critical. And certainly, pointing out to people (patients, providers, clinical trial screeners, etc.) why these discrepancies and disparities are happening.
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