Vision: Emerson Diversity Health Foundation’s vision is to educate physicians and patients of the importance of participating in clinical research studies because “clinical trials are a complement to medicine”. Our vision is to educate the communities who are underrepresented in clinical trials to improve their overall participation and improve clinical research as a whole.
Mission: The Diversity Health Foundation is the agency in charge of the Mexican Consulate’s Health Window and also works with the Guatemalan, El Salvadorian, and Columbian consulates. These opportunities allow the Diversity Health Foundation to educate the Hispanic community of DC in a multitude of ways. We coordinate health fairs along with hosting partner organizations to speak at the consulates. We have hosted priority partners (health insurance agency), TLW, Pruebas de Chagas, La Clinica Del Pueblo (LCDP), among many more, who educated the members in attendance at the consulate.
The Diversity Health Foundation works with other agencies in order to reach a greater audience. We have worked with government agencies, like the Office of Minority Health at the FDA. In order to educate medical professionals across the nation on the importance of clinical research we partnered with the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.
At health fairs the Diversity Health Foundation does health screenings, especially for hypertension and hyperglycemia. All patients are educated on the importance of a healthy diet and exercise in order to reduce the risk of hypertension, diabetes, and heart disease. Eye screenings and vision tests are provided for patients that require them. Health fairs provide the Diversity Health Foundation with great opportunities to educate large populations of the clinical research studies that are ongoing in the Washington DC area.
Education:
“Tu Salud Tu Familia” (Your health your family)
• Goal: Encourage audience to become interested in becoming clinical trial patients when appropriate
• First TV Show of its kind
• Teaches/Focuses on community and global health. Medical and Dental health
• Educates viewers on clinical research
• The government in health
Internship Program
Emerson Diversity Health Foundation provides undergraduate student with the chance to learn how clinical trials are conducted. Clinical research is a hard field for students to enter because extensive experience and training is required to be competent enough to work as a clinical research coordinator and this internship provides students the chance to gain the necessary experience. There are multiple aspects of clinical research that students gain experience in that can translate to future positions, including but not limited to:
• handling/preparing clinical laboratory samples,
• phlebotomy,
• conducting ECGs,
• entering clinical data into EDCs,
• creating/maintaining CRFs,
• interpreting/following study protocols,
• learning the FDAs protocols and regulations.