Following the introduction of the King’s Model, recruitment of people from diverse backgrounds in commercial interventional studies increased from 6.4% to 16.1%, and for non-commercial studies, from 30.2% to 41.0% and 59.2% in the selected studies.

The study ‘Addressing the gap for racially diverse research involvement: The King’s Model for minority ethnic research participant recruitment was published in Public Health in Practice.

Research participation varies greatly among different ethnicities. This has a direct effect on healthcare experiences and the extent to which personalised medicine can be applied to patients from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Researchers identified that a novel, comprehensive approach was needed comprising of local and community actions to promote inclusive research recruitment. The King’s Model was developed with a local patient and public involvement group and the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy team at King’s College Hospital.

The research team compared the rates of diverse recruitment in studies where the King’s Model was used, with those which had previously closed to recruitment and where ethnicity data was available. The project was led by Professor K Ray Chaudhuri, professor of movement disorders and neurology, Dr Josephine Ocloo, senior researcher at King’s College London and Simon O'Donohue, head of equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI), King’s College Hospital and the EDI team.

The King’s Model includes a set of internal and external actions which can help to increase the participation of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in research. These include internal actions:

• Attendance of meetings with senior management to highlight the issue and maintain dialogue
• Attendance of smaller departmental meetings to educate staff and hear their views
• Organising meetings focused on diverse recruitment strategies with key professionals with a track record of work on this issue
• Creating electronic resources to drive research participation within the hospital

Community outreach with local community groups, schools, churches, colleges and youth centres including:

• Identifying local champions
• Webinars for local populations to address misconceptions and raise awareness
• Attending awareness days to drive recruitment to COVID-19 vaccine trials with key staff on stalls
• Disseminate videos featuring patient ambassadors from ethnic minority backgrounds.

Underpinning the model is the MAADE scheme, which is a set of considerations to enable the long-term implementation of the King’s Model. The MAADE model includes:

• Monitoring the ethnicities of participants in research studies
• Acceptability – challenging fixed assumptions about research and making it more acceptable
• Accessibility – ensuring access to research participation for all
• Drive – Trust-wide drive and initiatives for active engagement in research
• Experience – Ensuring satisfaction with research participation.

Read more about the study.

This article is based on a news story by the NIHR ARC London.

NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (AHR) South London is a research organisation that brings together researchers, health and social care practitioners, and local people to improve health and social care in south London. Their applied research is designed to solve practical problems faced by local health and social care services. The NIHR ARC South London is part of the NIHR and hosted by King's College Hospital in partnership with King's College London.

Dr Josephine Ocloo at King's College London is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Applied Research Collaboration South London (NIHR ARC South London) at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.