The UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has recognized that there are many in society who are under-served by health research. This has led to NIHR INCLUDE, an initiative to improve inclusion in trials (https://www.nihr.ac.uk/documents/impr…). All of the presenters are involved with the development of frameworks to increase inclusion of under-served groups, specifically people from ethnic minority groups, people who are socio-economically disadvantaged and people who have impaired capacity. They will briefly outline these frameworks but primarily focus on the numerous and complex barriers under-served groups face in participating in clinical research, the opportunities to increase inclusion of these underserved groups, and the role the frameworks may have in supporting greater inclusion.
Dr Heidi Gardner is a Research Fellow at the Health Services Research Unit at the University of Aberdeen. Heidi designs and conducts research to understand disparities in clinical trial engagement and to improve the accessibility and acceptability of clinical trials to underserved populations.
Dr Victoria Shepherd is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Trials Research at Cardiff University where she leads a research programme exploring the ethical and methodological challenges around trials involving adults with impaired capacity to consent.
Dr Fran Sherratt is a Research Fellow and Chartered Psychologist in the Department of Public Health, Policy and Systems at the University of Liverpool. She is a multi-methods researcher, with expertise in qualitative research. Her research focuses on making clinical research more patient-centred by optimising clinical research communication
Prof. Shaun Treweek is a health services researcher interested in efficient trial design, particularly around recruitment and retention and the effective presentation of research evidence. He also helped to develop PRECIS-2, a tool to match trial design decisions to the information needs of those intended to use the results.
