Webinar: Understanding Health Literacy for Clinical Research Enrollment
Thursday, February 3, 2022 | 11 AM - 12 PM CST
Part 2 of CHI’s 10-Part Series: From Researcher to Patient - Making Clinical Trials More Diverse
About the Program
This program explores the intersection of health literacy and equitably recruiting patients of color to make clinical trials more diverse, equitable, and accessible. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services defines health literacy as “the degree to which individuals can find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others .”Data indicates that only 36% of Americans have only basic or below basic health literacy skills. Lower health literacy is also more common in older adults, communities of color, medically underserved Americans. Additionally, limited health literacy costs the healthcare system money and results in higher than necessary morbidity and mortality. The CDC estimates improving health literacy could prevent nearly 1 million hospital visits and save over $25 billion a year. Moreover, health literacy can impact clinical trial patient recruitment. According to Clinedge, Over 75% of all trials fall short of patient enrollment goals, and health literacy is a significant cause. Furthermore, patients of color and other diverse groups are underrepresented in clinical research. This program brings together experts to discuss effective strategies for properly communicating clinical trials to under-represented groups to make trials more diverse and representative of the U.S. population.
Series Host
Dr. Neelum Aggarwal, MD
Professor, Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center
Dr. Neelum T. Aggarwal, MD, is the Chief Diversity Officer at American Medical Women’s Association and Associate Professor, Departments of Neurological Sciences and the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center. She is the Senior Neurologist for the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center (RADC), Research Director at the Rush Heart Center for Women, and serves as the Principal Investigator and Site Principal Investigator for multiple NIA funded research studies and consortia led clinical trials. Her work focuses on how sex, gender and social determinants of health are associated with risk, detection and treatment of cognitive changes associated with dementia. Dr. Aggarwal is a long-standing voice for community based research, clinical trial participation, public health initiatives, both in Chicago and nationally. She serves as the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA), and was past chair of the Governing Council of the American Medical Association- Women's Physician Section.
Currently, she co chairs the Inclusion, Diversity and Education in Alzheimer's Disease - Outreach and Policy subcommittee and the Advisory Group on Risk Evidence Education for Dementia. As the Strategic Advisor for the Science Runway, a Chicago Innovation Mentor (CIM) and past National Chair for the Women in Bio Mentoring, Advisors and Peers Committee, she is uniquely positioned to work with diverse groups of colleagues, mentor and sponsor women and men in the medical, life sciences and STEM sectors. She completed her medical degree from the Rosalind Franklin University - Chicago Medical School, completed her neurology residency at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and completed an aging and neurodegenerative disorders fellowship at the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center.
DISTINGUISHED SPEAKERS
Dr. Melva Covington, PhD, MPH, MBA
Senior Vice President, Research and Patient Outcomes at Curio Digital Therapeutics Inc.
Dr. Covington is a leader in health outcomes research, strategy and business development. She specializes in providing scientific and technical expertise across a range of therapeutic areas and health care platforms. Her interests focus on understanding how real-world data and scientific evidence can be acquired and translated across the drug development lifecycle to address the unmet needs of patients, particularly those in under-represented populations. She has extensive training in Public Health Practice, Health Economics and Comparative Outcomes Research. This enables her to bring deep strategic thinking and analytic expertise to clients and strategic partnerships.
Melva’s leadership has spanned across a diverse range of companies, which include global pharmaceuticals, innovative biotechnology, digital technology, health insurers, academic medical centers, research think-tanks and government. She has also worked across business functions, namely corporate strategy, business development, medical affairs, health policy, field-based medical, clinical operations, evidence generation and scientific communications.
Melva is passionate about mentoring others in their growth journey (personal and professional) and applying evidence to get to real-world solutions that can impact health outcomes across diverse patient populations.
She has an A.B. in Politics/Economics from The Catholic University of America, Masters of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and MBA from Cornell University. Melva has authored numerous publications and is an impassioned public speaker.
Dr. Sarah Hartz, MD, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Dr. Sarah Hartz is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Hartz holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2003), and she performed her residency in Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital (2005-2009). Dr. Hartz is currently a physician scientist who has combined her background in statistics and genetics with her psychiatric training to better understand the genetics of substance dependence. Dr. Hartz's current research interests include 1) genetics of comorbidity between substance use disorders and other severe mental illness, 2) return of genetic results to research participants, and 3) application of quantitative methodologies to addiction genetics.
Dr. Jessica Mozersky, PhD, MBE
Assistant Professor in Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Jessica Mozersky, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Bioethics Research Center at Washington University in St Louis. She is also a Faculty Scholar in the Institute of Public Health. Dr. Mozersky is trained in anthropology and holds a Masters degree in bioethics. She spent 4 years at the University of Pennsylvania undergoing postdoctoral training in the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) of genomics and new biomedical technologies. She has extensive qualitative research expertise exploring how individuals grapple with predictive risk information related to preclinical Alzheimer Disease (AD), adult and pediatric cancer, and prenatal DNA testing. She is the principal investigator, along with Dr. Sarah Hartz, of an NIA funded clinical trial (NCT04699786) to return multiple research results that indicate 5 year risk of developing AD dementia to healthy older adults taking part in AD research. The project will assess the impact of receiving research results on cognitive and psychosocial outcomes, while also exploring the impact on caregivers or family members, and the reasons people decline to learn this information. Educational materials and a results report that adhere to health communication best practices have been developed to communicate AD risk information. Dr. Mozersky is also site PI or co-investigator for numerous NIH funded ELSI projects on topics including pediatric and adult genetic testing, informed consent, recruitment of underserved and rural populations, and qualitative data sharing.
in partnership with
Related Content
