Skip to: Clinical Trial Participation, Addressing Disease in Minority Communities, National Urban League, F.A.C.E. Patient Education, Multicultural Health Care:A Quality Improvement Guide, Health Education Answers, Support Partners, LaRaza, Health Care Literacy, Patient Assistance Programs, Lilly for Better Health, Urban Outreach Collaborative, Asian Cancer Research Group
Beyond our own workplace, understanding the impact of diversity of our patients contributes to our efforts to improve patient care and outcomes--our ultimate goal. This understanding is the foundation of Lilly’s tailored therapy strategy to deliver patients the right medicine, at the right dose, at the right time. This strategy provides more predictable, personalized patient outcomes. Put simply, we must know our patients.
Because patients’ responses to medicines can vary based on many factors including ethnicity, clinical trial participants need to more closely represent the diversity of people who may later use the medicine that is being developed. In the U.S., clinical trials typically have not been as diverse as the overall population. Lilly is working to increase minority representation in clinical trials.
Clinical Trial Participation
We have defined goals across our therapeutic and product lines to achieve greater diversity among patients enrolling in new clinical trials, and we’re designing trials for specific populations to help bridge identified gaps. In addition,we are analyzing data from completed studies to assess whether the effects of our medicines vary in different patient populations. We are also tailoring our patient education materials to ensure we are providing information in a way that is meaningful to patient groups. And we’re conducting discussions with advocacy and professional organizations and external multicultural advisory boards to gather more diverse input for our decision-making.
We are proud to join the American Medical Association (AMA), National Medical Association (NMA), National Hispanic Medical Association( NHMA), and the Education Network to Advance Clinical Trials (ENACCT) to work to increase awareness of clinical trials among physicians who treat diverse patients — in part through the creation and distribution of this brochure to important audiences.
Addressing Disease in Minority Communities
In the U.S., minority groups often suffer heightened incidence rates of certain diseases, including diabetes, which we specialize in treating. We have established partnerships with leading minority organizations to provide prevention-related solutions and interventions through local grassroots and national outreach. With the support of national advocates, we are able to positively impact minority populations and improve awareness of chronic diseases in traditionally underserved communities.
National Urban League
For example, in 2006, the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation and the National Urban League (NUL) launched a multiyear “Health and Wellness” education initiative, designed to address health disparities and chronic disease prevention with a focus on diabetes and chronic disease. The program’s goal is to encourage healthy behaviors in African-Americans and other people of color through community partnerships, outreach, conferences, workshops, and curriculum design/evaluation. The program offers local engagement of targeted Urban League affiliates, through a model program or “best practices” approach toward delivery of health education/information to urban communities.
F.A.C.E. Patient Education
The Fearless African-Americans Connected and Empowered (F.A.C.E.) Diabetes Campaign is a grassroots movement targeting African-Americans to help individuals, families and neighborhoods overcome key barriers to success in living with Type 2 diabetes. African-Americans are disproportionately affected by Type 2 diabetes; according to the American Diabetes Association, African-Americans in the United States are 1.8 times more likely to have diabetes as non-Hispanic whites, and 25 percent of African-Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 have the disease. Supported by Eli Lilly and Company, Glory Foods, national advocacy groups, and local community organizations, the F.A.C.E. Diabetes campaign will implement a series of practical and sustainable programs, which will help foster behavioral and attitudinal changes in areas critical to success in managing diabetes such as nutrition/cooking, physical activity, health and overall well-being.
Multicultural Health Care: A Quality Improvement Guide
Lilly and the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s Multicultural Health Care: A Quality Improvement Guide is a free tool and resource library for health care organizations that strive to reduce health disparities among the diverse communities they serve.
The guide has four comprehensive steps for implementing a quality improvement process: 1) Assessment of gaps; 2) Development of a step-by-step plan to address challenges; 3) Implementation of initiatives; and 4) Evaluation of outcomes. Each step contains information on how to follow the process, as well as proven, real-world best practice examples from a variety of health care settings.
The guide is useful for administrators, clinicians, educators and advocates and also can be used to meet legislative, regulatory and accreditation requirements for cultural and linguistic competency. To access this tool, visit: www.CLAShealth.org.
Health Education Answers
Lilly’s award-winning Health Education Answers program is designed to help managed care and public payer organizations improve the quality of patient health through interactive educational information. This user-friendly tool, available online and on DVD-ROM, educates patients about issues related to their health, such as diet and exercise, healthy habits for children and simple steps for preventing and managing illness.
Health Education Answers addresses several health topics, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, depression, diabetes, heart health, manage your weight, medication safety, men’s health, schizophrenia, smoking and addictions, wellness and women’s health. The program also includes an optional health risk assessment, which helps patients identify their at-risk behaviors and makes suggestions for improvement.
Health Education Answers is based on research-supported patient education material that adheres to national clinical guidelines and received NCQA Health Information Product (HIP) certification. Educational materials are available in English and Spanish, with some modules in Mandarin. To access this tool, visit: www.healtheducationanswers.com/tour.
Support Partners
Support Partners is a step-by-step approach to building a personal network of support for those living with major depression. Having a support partner – someone to lean on and be honest with – can make a difference for someone with depression. The Support Partners guidebooks, created by Lilly, help people understand the illness, the importance of seeking treatment from a professional and how to create important partnerships.
The guidebooks offer detailed information for patients with depression and their Support Partners about working together to make getting better possible. The guidebooks address a variety of topics, including recognizing the signs and symptoms of depression, finding and working with a doctor, talking about depression and getting support, tracking progress, understanding how depression changes throughout womens' lives and how their support networks may change, and incorporating a dog into a support network.
All of these materials are available in English and Spanish and may be accessed at www.supportpartnersprogram.com.
National Council of LaRaza
In addition, the Lilly Foundation provided funding to the National Council of La Raza (NCLR) for a “Promotores de Salud” (lay health workers) program—“De Blanco y Negro a Colores: Entendiendo la Depresión” (“From Black and White to Color: Understanding Depression”). The outreach, which promotes mental health awareness in Latino communities, is focused on public awareness and support for depression. Aspects include improving the understanding of depression and advocating for treatment through linguistically appropriate and culturally relevant messages, and training of 50 health workers and staff from three community-based organizations in El Paso, Texas; Hayward, California; and Miami, Florida. Their community work serves as a catalyst for advocacy and health education efforts, and the development of health care policies that improve mental health treatment and services among Latinos.
Health Care Literacy
In 2007, we awarded $480,000 to the Indiana Center for Intercultural Communication (ICIC) for a literacy project aimed at improving health maintenance and disease management among limited English speakers. ICIC researchers will study how diabetes patients acquire health care information and interpret medication labels and patient information leaflets. The long-term goal of the three-year project is to develop effective training and communication tools that will allow those with limited English proficiency to better access medical information and treatment. ICIC, based in the Department of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, is an internationally recognized leader in linguistic research. The Lilly grant allows the research team to extend its work to health communications.
Patient Assistance Programs
Access to health care – and affordable medicines – is a major problem in many countries and Lilly has taken steps to assist. Lilly has helped patients obtain medicines through six different patient assistance programs. Learn More
Lilly for Better Health
We understand the health challenges patients and their families face. And while we can’t solve every one of them, Lilly goes beyond medicine to help patients improve their health. Lilly supports and partners with numerous local and national initiatives, including those addressing multicultural health disparities, to improve patient care.
Lilly also offers several resources to help patients live healthier lives. Many of those materials are available in multiple languages and address risks for disease based on race and ethnicity.
Many resources, including A Healthy You! America’s Guide to Healthy Living – available in English and Spanish – are available at www.lillyforbetterhealth.com.
Urban Outreach Collaborative
The Urban Outreach Collaborative is a program sponsored by the Cancer Support Community that serves to level disparities in cancer survivorship that exist among minorities and low-income individuals by connecting them with vital cancer support programs. The program, funded through a multi-year grant from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, operates by bringing together organizations that deal with community services and oncology. The organizations then collaborate to provide the appropriate services and programs, such as support groups and stress management, free of charge. The Lilly Foundation and the Cancer Support Community have united in this initiative to offer such emotional and pschological support as they are an essential part of the treatment of cancer.
Asian Cancer Research Group
Lilly, Merck and Pfizer Inc. have formed the Asian Cancer Research Group, Inc., an independent not-for-profit company established to accelerate research into an area of great unmet medical need--patients in Asia battling lung and gastric cancer. Over the next two years, the three companies have committed to create an extensive pharmacogenomic cancer database composed of data from approximately 2,000 tissue samples from patients in Asia with lung and gastric cancer. The database will be made publicly available to the research community at large and, over time, further populated with clinical data. Ultimately, the ACRG will aid researchers around the world to develop diagnostics, tailor current treatments and develop novel therapies to improve outcomes for patients with lung, gastric and perhaps other forms of cancer.
