HealthVerity releases the Provider Diversity Index 2023 edition to increase diversity in clinical trials

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Jul 18, 2023, 08:00 ET

Enhancements support pharmaceutical manufacturers and CROs in synchronizing recruitment to align with disease incidence

PHILADELPHIA, July 18, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthVerity, the leader in synchronizing transformational technologies and real-world data (RWD) to advance the science, today announced the release of the Provider Diversity Index (PDI) 2023 edition with breakthrough enhancements that help pharmaceutical manufacturers to prioritize physicians who are treating patients more reflective of the populations impacted by the conditions being studied.

First introduced in 2020, this nationally-syndicated report synchronizes medical, pharmacy and social determinants of health data from the nation's largest data ecosystem to calculate the racial diversity of patients for over 1 million physician practices, all in a HIPAA-compliant manner. The HealthVerity PDI is being actively used by clients to identify clinical trial site investigators and to more effectively characterize and recruit patient populations that better reflect the diversity mix of diagnosed patients. New enhancements to the HealthVerity PDI for 2023, such as age range, gender, income range, payer type (commercial, Medicare or Medicaid) and diagnosis further the mission of pharmaceutical manufacturers and CROs in achieving their diversity goals.

Alzheimer's is an example of a condition that disproportionately affects minorities. According to the Alzheimer's Association, 19% of Black/African American and 14% of Hispanic/Latino adults age 65 and older have Alzheimer's, compared to 10% of White/Caucasian seniors.^¹ In contrast, participants in a 2020 clinical trial for an Alzheimer's medication were 86% White/Caucasian.^² The latest HealthVerity PDI leverages diagnosis in a HIPAA-compliant manner to highlight physicians treating broader cohorts of minority patients whose recruitment could yield more effective clinical trial results.

Age is another important consideration for Alzheimer's research. The Alzheimer's Association reported that clinical trial sites for memory impairment drugs do not cohesively align with areas that have larger populations of individuals 60 years of age and older, causing strain on sites in areas of higher density senior populations while leaving other individuals having to travel 50 miles to get to a clinical trial site. This has led to lower performance and delayed timelines.^³ With the enhancements to the HealthVerity PDI, researchers can discover physician practices that have representative patient populations for race, age and diagnosis to solve these recruitment challenges.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census, 57.8% of the population is White/Caucasian, 12.1% is Black/African American and 18.7% of the population is Hispanic/Latino. The FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research reported; however, that 75% of participants in 2020 clinical trials were White/Caucasian, only 8% were Black/African American and 11% were Hispanic/Latino, demonstrating the need for greater equity in clinical trials.²

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has placed a high importance on increasing equity in clinical trials, with Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D. stating in a release that "…ensuring meaningful representation of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials is fundamental to public health… [and] greater diversity will be a key focus of the agency to facilitate better treatments and better ways to fight diseases that disproportionately impact diverse communities."^⁴

"These statistics demonstrate how critical it is that researchers be able to work on clinical trials with physicians who have better access to patient populations representative of their particular study," said Andrew Kress, CEO of HealthVerity. "We are proud to have the advanced technologies and privacy techniques to enable our clients to practice better medicine through diversity."

About HealthVerity
HealthVerity synchronizes transformational technologies with the nation's largest healthcare and consumer data ecosystem to power previously unattainable outcomes and fundamentally advance the science. We offer a comprehensive, yet flexible approach, based on the foundational elements of Identity, Privacy, Governance and Exchange (IPGE), that synchronizes unparalleled Identity management with built-in Privacy compliance and Governance, providing the ability to discover and Exchange a near limitless combination of data at a record pace. Together with our partners in life sciences, government and insurance, we are Synchronizing the Science. To learn more about HealthVerity, visit healthverity.com.

HealthVerity Contact:
Colleen Stoker
614-738-0592
[email protected]

^¹ Alzheimer's Association. 2023 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures. https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf^² FDA (2021). 2020 Drug Trials Snapshots Summary Report. https://www.fda.gov/media/145718/download.
^³ Stanton, S.; Dwyer, J.; Ward, N.; Vradenburg, G.; Taylor, J. (2020). Are U.S. clinical trial sites in the right places to meet the demand for the population density of those over 60? Alzheimer's & Dementia, vol. 16, issue 10, December 7, 2020. https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/alz.044244^⁴ FDA (2022). FDA Takes Important Steps to Increase Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Clinical Trials. https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-takes-important-steps-increase-racial-and-ethnic-diversity-clinical-trials.

SOURCE HealthVerity