Video: In clinical trials, everyone needs a seat at the table

Published January 28, 2021
user looking at monitor

Medical research trials often skew up to 80 - 90% white. But to learn more about personalizing healthcare for everyone, scientists need more data about what makes each of us unique. That's why Juana Mata and Alyshia Merchant are participating in the All of Us Research Program: to give scientists more information about what they need to understand about how to treat or even prevent serious diseases in people of all backgrounds. They share their journeys with an often painful disease call lupus, which disproportionately affects people of color. Right now, there's no cure. But Mata and Merchant are hoping their participation in the All of Us Research Program can change that. 

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is partnering with the All of Us Research Program and the Scripps Research Translational Institute to help everyone join the effort.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is a national federation of 36 independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively provide health care coverage for one in three Americans. BCBSA provides health care insights through The Health of America Report series and the national BCBS Health Indexsm. For more information on BCBSA and its member companies, please visit BCBS.com. We also encourage you to connect with us on Facebook, check out our videos on YouTube and follow us on Twitter.

The Scripps Research Translational Institute (SRTI) of The Scripps Research Translational Institute focuses on individualized medicine, using the tools of digital medicine and genomics to better understand each person and render more effective healthcare. In 2016, SRTI was awarded a grant for over $200M by the National Institutes of Health’s Precision Medicine Initiative to lead the All of Us Research Program’s Participant Center. SRTI is further supported, since 2008, by the flagship NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award to promote human health and train future leaders in biomedicine. For more information, visit www.stsiweb.org.