Janssen (now Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine) is a pharma company renowed the world over for its innovation. In recent years, they have responded to the critical issue of underrepresentation of minorities in clinical trials. This is an industry-wide problem for pharma that has resulted in the research and development of medicines that fail to adequately meet the medical needs of underserved populations.
Janssen needed an agency partner to create a multichannel campaign to educate underserved populations about participation in health research. Messaging needed to be calibrated for minority populations addressing low health literacy, mistrust, and barriers to participation. Most notably, African American community has had a well-founded historical mistrust of human subject research. Not only did Janssen need external engagement expertise, they needed to educate its internal research teams on in-house capabilities to help scale diversity recruitment and retention.
Work I did
I crafted content including:
- Website copy, a video script and accompanying social copy for ResearchIncludesMe.com, a website to educate diverse demographics on the benefits and implications of participating in clinical trials.
- Articles on Janssen’s website, LinkedIn, and other online news outlets speaking to initiatives to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in clinical trials.
- Company-wide emails and slide decks for research teams at Janssen promoting their in-house capabilities to scale diversity recruitment best practices.
- Two case studies detailing how Janssen researchers recruited, engaged, and successfully retained diverse participants in key racial, ethnic and age demographics for clinical trials.
This content was built upon my creation of comprehensive messaging strategy:
- I researched the historic challenges in studies to contextualize the need for greater diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- I compiled health disparities research related to specific demographics such as Latino and Hispanic populations to highlight the barriers to participation among these communities, and opportunities that inclusive trials represent.
- I created segmented messaging based on unique health needs, shared values, and other nuances unique to various minority groups.
- I interviewed key diversity stakeholders at Janssen, partnering clinical research organizations, and community associations to increase knowledge sharing of best practices and initiatives aimed at strengthening minority participation in trials.
- I gathered key recruitment metrics from study teams to showcase the results of targeted efforts to engage diverse trial participants.
- I managed stakeholder relationships with agency colleagues and client points of contact to integrate feedback and ensure timely communication.
Results I achieved
My combination of focused research, content writing, and messaging strategy benefited the teams at Janssen as well as the wider community of underserved minorities. Employees reported the following benefits via a company-wide survey:
A greater level of collaboration and cooperation across departments in increasing inclusivity and diversity of trial participants.
Burgeoning alliance with community organizations to educate and inform its members of new and exciting trials.
An increased level of awareness for underserved communities on the benefits and impacts of participating in clinical research.
A greater level of diversity in Janssen’s (and other pharma companies’) trials.
Summary
I helped Janssen raise awareness to underserved minorities on the importance of their participation in clinical trials. Not only that, but I helped Janssen’s teams share best practices and collaborate to ensure greater diversity in their research. I made a sizable impact thanks to many hours interviewing key stakeholders in the diversity space, crafting messaging that resonated with different target audiences across minority populations, and contextualizing messaging with key metrics for specific trials and research statistics on health equity.