Description

There are stark gaps in life expectancy, disease incidence, and health status among different racial and ethnic groups in the United States. While social determinants of health play an undeniably large role in both race and class discrepancies, HRiA’s new Policy & Practice Report explores another contributing factor. Developing a Racially Diverse Biomedical Research Workforce suggests that the ability of our research enterprise to improve our health remains substantially compromised by the relative racial and ethnic homogeneity of our current research workforce.

Diversity in scientific research benefits the workforce and society at large.
Diverse teams generally outperform homogeneous teams, particularly those attempting to solve complex problems. Researchers from diverse backgrounds are also more likely to explore topics that are overlooked, thereby broadening the scope of biomedical research.