Faster Together is a free online course designed to help researchers understand past research abuses and their influence on minority population participation in clinical trials. It also provides strategies and tools for improving recruitment methods to increase the diversity of trial participants.
The course has eight sessions which include content on:
- Understanding Why Increasing Minority Recruitment in Clinical Trials is Important
- Principles of Community Engagement
- How to Reach Out to Community Members
- Educating Potential Research Participants about Research
- Working with Community Healthcare Providers
- Developing Effective Screening, Education and Decision Support for People Who Live in Marginalized Communities
- Designing an Informed Consent Process that Improves Participant Understanding
- Understanding Why Completing a Clinical Research Study May be Difficult for Some Participants
Financial aid is available to learners who would like to purchase a certificate showing their successful completion of the course. The course is available in 21 languages.
Stage(s) of Research Process:
- Study Planning – The course provides resources and tools for building partnerships with community leaders and community healthcare providers, and ways to educate potential research participants about clinical trial opportunities.
- Study Conduct – The course provides resources and tools for participant screening, culturally appropriate methods for informed consent, and strategies to improve participant retention during the clinical trial.
Who Might Benefit:
- Researchers and Research Staff
- Can take the course to understand the full history of minority participation in clinical research and learn techniques for making their recruitment strategies culturally appropriate.
- Those who take the course can also learn the principles of community engagement and how to build equitable community partnerships.
- Communities and Patients, Caregivers and Patient Advocacy Groups
- Can access all course material and may directly benefit from the content on principles of community engagement and ways to educate potential research participants about the research study.
- Can also use the Faster Together course as an educational tool when they work with researchers as collaborators or consultants on specific projects.
Key Takeaways and Examples in Practice:
- Videos of patients describing real life experiences are highly valued by learners.
- Quizzes are helpful learning tools. Questions with “What would you do?” scenarios were popular with learners.
- The self-paced learning available through the Coursera platform was viewed as a strength of the course and likely enhanced access and use of the information by a diverse audience.
- Some course participants found the material too general and would have liked more content on specific considerations for recruitment of individual racial/ethnic minority groups in localized community settings.
This work was done with the direct support by each of the following partners who advance this work:
- Vanderbilt Recruitment Innovation Center
- NCATS Trial Innovation Network
Keywords: Equitable Engagement, Methods of Engagement, Patients, Caregivers, and Patient Advocacy Groups; Researchers; Communities
Links to Relevant Resources:
- Faster Together, Enhancing the Recruitment of Minorities in Clinical Trials – Coursera
- NCATS Trial Innovation Network
- Vanderbilt Recruitment Innovation Network – Provides Tailored Support to Research Teams
- Contact Faster Together
Definitions for each engagement objective can be found in the glossary.