Health Equity: Accessing Quality MPN Care and Clinical Trials
Health Equity: Accessing Quality MPN Care and Clinical Trials from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
How can health equity be addressed in MPN care? Dr. Angela Fleischman discusses the importance of clinical trial diversity and ways to help provide equitable MPN care for all patients.
Dr. Angela Fleischman is a physician scientist and assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine. Learn more about Dr. Fleischman.
See More From MPN Clinical Trials 201
Related Programs:
|
|
|
Transcript:
Katherine:
Based on American history, some people believe that they won’t receive equitable or safe care if they participate in a trial.
How can you reassure those people who are concerned they’ll be treated fairly?
Dr. Fleischman:
Now, I think that this is a very important point, and something that there’s been a lot of emphasis, to try to improve diversity in clinical trials, because our American population is quite diverse. However, the participants that, in general, participate in clinical trials are, unfortunately, still have not a very diverse population in our clinical trials.
I think what we need to first start doing is education, to reach out to underrepresented communities, to start to build the trust amongst these communities, to tell them about the value of clinical trials. And I think it’s going to take some time to build trust first, because it does take quite a bit of trust to participate in the clinical trial.
But I don’t have a great answer for that, other than, we need to work hard to, first, build trust, and then, I think the diversity will come.
Katherine:
Mm-hmm. How does holding on to some of these beliefs lead to limitations in care and create disparities?
Dr. Fleischman:
So, and rightfully so, if a patient is scared, or has some reservations of participating in a clinical trial, they may – that’s offered to them, that they provide them with, potentially, something better than standard of care. They may be missing out on a potential opportunity.
Also, potentially, if a patient, if they’re asked about a clinical trial and they have a negative connotation about them, they may lose trust with their physician, if they say, oh, my physician is asking me to participate in a clinical trial.
I think it all boils down to trust, and as physicians, we need to demonstrate that we are worthy of the patient’s trust, and we really are ingrained in us to treat every patient the same. I mean, that’s what our oath is. That’s what we’re supposed to do, and I think that the vast majority of patients, they have, ethically, are treating patients exactly the same, regardless of their circumstances.
Katherine:
Health equity means that no matter what a patient’s circumstances, whether it be race, income issues, lack of education, that they should have access to the best care. What is being done by the medical community to address this issue?
Dr. Fleischman:
So, yes, this is a significant issue, and in particular, with myeloproliferative neoplasms, in whom there are lots of oral drugs – or with interferons, it’s injectable, but you get the prescription, and you give it to yourself – that there can be quite high copays, in some cases, exorbitant amounts, which, really, are not able to be paid for by the vast majority of people.
So, many companies do have copay assistance programs. Also, foundations have copay assistance programs. So, I think that is, at least, one step in trying to make things more equitable, to get people who need a drug, their drug, at a very reasonable cost. Again, it does take some time, some legwork on the part of the patient, to seek out these programs, or to find an advocate for themselves to seek out these programs for them.
