Bhavik Patel Receives Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Science from the American Heart Association

Congratulations to Dr. Bhavik Patel for receiving the Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Science!

Dr. Patel received this award from the American Heart Association for his project, “Evaluating the Impact of Messaging Frameworks and Financial Incentives on Cardiovascular Trial Enrollment Diversity.”

PROJECT SUMMARY: Black and Hispanic/Latinx people, women, and people from rural areas do not get the best treatments and die more from heart disease. One reason is that heart disease studies do not include enough Black people, Hispanic/Latinx people, women, and people living in rural areas. The way researchers talk about joining these studies can help people feel more comfortable participating. Paying people can also make more people want to participate in these studies, but might also change how people see the risk of participating. Researchers have not studied different ways to talk about joining studies or pay people to join studies for Black and Hispanic/Latinx people, women, and people from rural areas. We are planning a study for these groups of people to understand how we can increase the numbers of patients from these groups in future heart disease studies. Black and Hispanic/Latinx people, women, and people in rural areas can choose to do our online survey. We will show them a made-up heart disease study and they will get 10 different versions. In each version, most parts will stay the same. We will change the way we talk about joining the study, how much money they would be paid, and the risk of the study. They will be asked how “willing to participate” they would be (“definitely not willing to participate,” “not willing to participate,” “neutral,” “willing to participate,” or “definitely willing to participate”). First, we will see which way we talk about joining the study and how much money they would be paid would increase the numbers of patients from each group in future heart disease studies. Second, we will also see if different ways we talk about joining the study and how much money they would be paid change the way people see the risk of the study. Third, we will see if paying people makes poorer people more likely to participate. Our goal is to understand how we can increase the numbers of Black and Hispanic/Latinx people, women, and people from rural areas in future heart disease studies. This will help make heart disease treatment fairer for Americans who suffer the most from heart disease. Our study supports the American Heart Association’s mission to improve health equity by increasing the numbers of Black and Hispanic/Latinx people, women, and people from rural areas in heart disease studies.