Impact Brief – July 2022

State Health Departments generally do not receive funding for lupus initiatives or are directly involved in lupus research projects but serve as valuable partners in such efforts. The following information serves to increase awareness of a community-level research initiative established to address racial disparities in lupus clinical trials.

The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) has launched an initiative to reduce racial disparities in lupus clinical trials: Training to Increase Minority Enrollment in Lupus Clinical Trials with CommunitY Engagement (TIMELY).

TIMELY combines the ACR’s Materials to Increase Minority Involvement in Clinical Trials (MIMICT) model and its Community Health Worker Lupus Clinical Trials Training (LuCTT) model to operate collaboratively with practicing rheumatologists, nephrologists, dermatologists, and community health workers serving African American and Hispanic patients. The combined intervention addresses both provider- and patient-reported barriers to lupus clinical trial participation.

The program kicked off in June 2022 in the Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, and Rochester, New York areas, under the leadership of Dr. Saira Sheikh at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Dr. Allen Anandarajah at the University of Rochester Medical Center. ACR is also working in collaboration with Curamericas Global (NC) and the Community Health Worker Association Rochester (NY) to engage community health workers in the project.

TIMELY is funded by the U.S. DHHS Office of Minority Health and will continue until September 2023.

Visit the Lupus Initiative website for more information on the TIMELY project. Contact the ACR Collaborative initiatives (COIN) staff, Tenesha Hood at thood@rheumatology.org, if you would like to get involved.

ACR Lupus Initiative – Current Projects: thelupusinitiative.org/about-us/current-projects

ACR Materials to Increase Minority Involvement in Clinical Trails (MIMICT): MIMICT 2 – The Lupus Initiative

ACR Community Health Worker Lupus Clinical Trials Training (LuCTT): LuCTT – The Lupus Initiative