Completing the INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework was part of a group of projects which formed part of a rolling call for research proposals on Covid-19, jointly funded by UKRI and NIHR in response to the pandemic, and included research on treatments, vaccines and the spread of the virus, as well as specific calls on Covid-19 and ethnicity, and the wider impact of the virus on mental health.
The INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework is a tool that trial designers together with patient and public partners can use to make sure they think about factors that affect the involvement of all ethnic groups, such as disease, culture, the treatment being tested and trial information and procedures. It will also help people interpreting and reporting all trials, including COVID-19 trials, to make judgements about the applicability of trial results to all communities. This is particularly important for ethnic minority groups, which are very often under-represented in, and under-served by, health research.
Professor Shaun Treweek said ‘I am so pleased to see the Framework publicly available. It’s been a great collaboration with input from lots of people representing many trial stakeholders, including of course ethnic minority groups. I think it will help to make trials better. It will be better still as we learn from people who use it, and refine it.’
The NIHR has confirmed that a link to the Framework will become part of the NIHR Standard Application Form guidance.
The INCLUDE Ethnicity Framework is at https://www.trialforge.org/trial-forge-centre/include/
There is also a BMC blog at http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/on-medicine/2020/10/01/the-forgotten-the-ignored-and-the-under-served-trials-cannot-continue-to-fail-large-parts-of-society/