As a woman of color (WOC) and first-born daughter of immigrants, my life has always had its set of challenges. My parents didn’t go to college – instead they each immigrated to America, from different countries, to pursue the “American Dream.” Growing up, my parents and I were learning a new language, culture, and lifestyle together.
I went through many firsts and unknowns, and after a certain age, my parents couldn’t really help me anymore. Whether it was applying for colleges, filling out financial aid applications, or getting a corporate job, I had to figure it out on my own. I can say that financial aid applications – with zero understanding of taxes, at 17 years old – was terrifying. But, like most things, I figured it out and made it happen.
My father always taught me that education was key. If I wanted to be successful, I had to be the best. There was no room for error or opportunities for mistakes. He deeply rooted in me that, as a minority, excellence was the only way to be successful in the US. The greatest lesson I learned is one of resilience – being unafraid to ask the questions needed to position myself for success. It’s allowed me to excel in unfamiliar circumstances.
One of the main reasons I joined ICON is the company’s worldwide footprint. Working at a global company feels like home because I grew up in a community of immigrants from different countries. As a Project Manager, I’m a firm believer that in order for a team to be successful, we must embrace each other’s differences, strengths, and weaknesses. Working on global studies, I’ve been afforded the opportunity to work with people from even more diverse backgrounds. Diversity in the workplace is crucial to maintaining a successful and inclusive business, especially when it comes to employee engagement. Workplace diversity encourages collaboration and innovation – every team member brings their own unique backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to the table. In order to promote diversity within all ranks at ICON, we must promote a safe space for employees to feel heard and included.
Given our company’s values, we are truly in the mindset to focus on the human-centricity component and are doing just that. Efforts such as establishing the company’s Diversity & Inclusion Steering Group are steps in the right direction. During my time here, I have proudly served on committees dedicated to diversity, belonging, and inclusion, and I can honestly say that although we are early in the stages, ICON leadership is very supportive of our efforts. They all truly want to encourage positive change within our organisation.
As an industry, not only do we need to expand efforts within our respective companies, but we also need to be vocal about our progress externally. I’m a firm believer that you attract what you are. If we continue building a diverse, equal, and inclusive industry, then we will manifest, inspire, and attract diverse and inclusive talent.
Diversity and inclusion in clinical trials
Paving the way for diversity and inclusion in clinical trials: establishing a platform for improvement
This whitepaper examines the barriers to accessing under-represented subgroups, the regulatory landscape and how organisations are addressing this issue.
In this section
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Digital Disruption
- AI and clinical trials
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Clinical trial data anonymisation and data sharing
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Clinical Trial Tokenisation
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Closing the evidence gap: The value of digital health technologies in supporting drug reimbursement decisions
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Digital disruption in biopharma
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Disruptive Innovation
- Remote Patient Monitoring
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Personalising Digital Health
- Real World Data
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The triad of trust: Navigating real-world healthcare data integration
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Patient Centricity
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Agile Clinical Monitoring
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Capturing the voice of the patient in clinical trials
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Charting the Managed Access Program Landscape
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Developing Nurse-Centric Medical Communications
- Diversity and inclusion in clinical trials
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Exploring the patient perspective from different angles
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Patient safety and pharmacovigilance
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A guide to safety data migrations
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Taking safety reporting to the next level with automation
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Outsourced Pharmacovigilance Affiliate Solution
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The evolution of the Pharmacovigilance System Master File: Benefits, challenges, and opportunities
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Sponsor and CRO pharmacovigilance and safety alliances
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Understanding the Periodic Benefit-Risk Evaluation Report
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A guide to safety data migrations
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Patient voice survey
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Patient Voice Survey - Decentralised and Hybrid Trials
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Reimagining Patient-Centricity with the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)
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Using longitudinal qualitative research to capture the patient voice
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Agile Clinical Monitoring
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Regulatory Intelligence
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An innovative approach to rare disease clinical development
- EU Clinical Trials Regulation
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Using innovative tools and lean writing processes to accelerate regulatory document writing
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Current overview of data sharing within clinical trial transparency
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Global Agency Meetings: A collaborative approach to drug development
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Keeping the end in mind: key considerations for creating plain language summaries
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Navigating orphan drug development from early phase to marketing authorisation
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Procedural and regulatory know-how for China biotechs in the EU
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RACE for Children Act
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Early engagement and regulatory considerations for biotech
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Regulatory Intelligence Newsletter
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Requirements & strategy considerations within clinical trial transparency
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Spotlight on regulatory reforms in China
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Demystifying EU CTR, MDR and IVDR
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Transfer of marketing authorisation
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An innovative approach to rare disease clinical development
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Therapeutics insights
- Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders
- Cardiovascular
- Cell and Gene Therapies
- Central Nervous System
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Glycomics
- Infectious Diseases
- NASH
- Oncology
- Paediatrics
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Respiratory
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Rare and orphan diseases
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Advanced therapies for rare diseases
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Cross-border enrollment of rare disease patients
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Crossing the finish line: Why effective participation support strategy is critical to trial efficiency and success in rare diseases
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Diversity, equity and inclusion in rare disease clinical trials
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Identify and mitigate risks to rare disease clinical programmes
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Leveraging historical data for use in rare disease trials
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Natural history studies to improve drug development in rare diseases
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Patient Centricity in Orphan Drug Development
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The key to remarkable rare disease registries
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Therapeutic spotlight: Precision medicine considerations in rare diseases
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Advanced therapies for rare diseases
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Transforming Trials
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Accelerating biotech innovation from discovery to commercialisation
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Ensuring the validity of clinical outcomes assessment (COA) data: The value of rater training
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Linguistic validation of Clinical Outcomes Assessments
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Optimising biotech funding
- Adaptive clinical trials
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Best practices to increase engagement with medical and scientific poster content
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Decentralised clinical trials
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Biopharma perspective: the promise of decentralised models and diversity in clinical trials
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Decentralised and Hybrid clinical trials
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Practical considerations in transitioning to hybrid or decentralised clinical trials
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Navigating the regulatory labyrinth of technology in decentralised clinical trials
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Biopharma perspective: the promise of decentralised models and diversity in clinical trials
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eCOA implementation
- Blended solutions insights
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Implications of COVID-19 on statistical design and analyses of clinical studies
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Improving pharma R&D efficiency
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Increasing Complexity and Declining ROI in Drug Development
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Innovation in Clinical Trial Methodologies
- Partnership insights
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Risk Based Quality Management
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Transforming the R&D Model to Sustain Growth
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Accelerating biotech innovation from discovery to commercialisation
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Value Based Healthcare
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Strategies for commercialising oncology treatments for young adults
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US payers and PROs
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Accelerated early clinical manufacturing
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Cardiovascular Medical Devices
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CMS Part D Price Negotiations: Is your drug on the list?
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COVID-19 navigating global market access
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Ensuring scientific rigor in external control arms
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Evidence Synthesis: A solution to sparse evidence, heterogeneous studies, and disconnected networks
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Global Outcomes Benchmarking
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Health technology assessment
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Perspectives from US payers
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ICER’s impact on payer decision making
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Making Sense of the Biosimilars Market
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Medical communications in early phase product development
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Navigating the Challenges and Opportunities of Value Based Healthcare
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Payer Reliance on ICER and Perceptions on Value Based Pricing
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Payers Perspectives on Digital Therapeutics
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Precision Medicine
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RWE Generation Cross Sectional Studies and Medical Chart Review
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Survey results: How to engage healthcare decision-makers
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The affordability hurdle for gene therapies
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The Role of ICER as an HTA Organisation
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Strategies for commercialising oncology treatments for young adults
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Videos
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