IPG Health launches industry-first diversity offering in clinical trials
06.11.2023 15:41
To promote equality in healthcare, the agency network IPG Health is launching an offer that is unique in the industry. This is intended to help pharmaceutical companies diversify their clinical trials and develop more integrative treatment innovations. This is a multidisciplinary approach that ensures balanced representation of different groups and thus diversity throughout the entire clinical trial process - from origin to age to gender identification.
The service offering is based on IPG Health's extensive experience in the areas of medical and engagement strategy, data analytics, software intelligence and patient experience expertise. All hurdles in recruitment, advertising and inclusion in clinical studies are taken into account. The approach spans all dimensions – from understanding patient behavior and predicting their health goals to crafting measurable engagement strategies to developing systems to support clinical trials and more.
“Too often, diverse populations remain underrepresented in clinical trials, even when their lives are at stake,” said Sommer Bazuro, Chief Medical Officer of IPG Health. “Excluding populations from clinical trials means millions of people are deprived of access to new treatments that can improve their health and potentially save their lives.”
IPG Health has a long-standing commitment to diversity in clinical trials, most notably with the award-winning campaign “The Trial for #ClinicalEquality.” For over three years, this has brought together cross-sector stakeholders - from doctors, pharmaceutical companies and interest groups to technology companies and academic institutions - to raise awareness and stimulate innovation.
“In keeping with our motto of doing the right thing for our customers, their brands and our employees, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) must be at the heart of our work,” says Dana Maiman , CEO of IPG Health. “Our new offering is an example of how we are committed to promoting health equity. This clinical trial diversity benefit package is a critical step in helping clients unlock new opportunities and address the needs of underserved populations.”
Sommer Bazuro adds: “Helping companies achieve integrative clinical trials and outcomes requires a deep understanding of the complexity of the clinical trial process and the multifactorial barriers associated with it. Very few health agencies can do this and offer it. At IPG Health, we have invested years in understanding these relationships to identify actionable opportunities. We work with leading technology and pharmaceutical companies, advocacy groups and academic institutions across the entire clinical trial process - from need identification through design and implementation to the crucial intermediaries in between. All of this requires a high level of medical and scientific expertise, creativity and specialized know-how.”
The new offering is an expansion of IPG Health's "EDI+You" strategy, which also includes the Inclusion Intelligence Quotient (inQ for short). inQ is an integrated strategic framework that IPG Health developed specifically to ensure even more inclusive experiences and creative solutions across the network's 45+ agencies. inQ is based on an evidence-based framework based on the World Health Organization (WHO) model of health determinants. It aims to understand how different factors and influences affect the exclusion or inclusion of people. The aim is that no population groups are disadvantaged.