"Patient Diversity in Cancer Research Essential to Addressing Health Disparities, Scientists Say" - Christie Rizk
Researchers at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, DC earlier this month addressed the lack of diversity in many large genomic datasets. In one presentation, Eimear Kenny, PhD, an assistant professor of genetics and genomic sciences at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, noted that despite studying millions of people at once in massive studies, the representation of non-European, non-East Asian people in those studies has been flat at 4 percent in the past 10 years. One way to ameliorate the problem is for researchers to come out of their silos, according to Carol Horowitz, MD, MPH, an associate professor of health policy and medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. “We need to build a system where people are more involved. Ask the community what they want and use that to design research," Dr. Horowitz said. "The community may ask questions that researchers or clinicians haven't thought of because they live with certain circumstances that researchers and clinicians don't experience."
- Eimear Kenny, PhD, Assistant Professor, Genetics, Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Carol Horowitz, MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Population Health Science and Policy, Medicine, General Internal Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai