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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Nicole Crowell, M.S., RTRN Project Director Morehouse School of Medicine
(404) 752-8651 ncrowell@msm.edu
Medical and academic organizations unite to host workshop on increasing minority participation in
Cardiovascular Clinical Trials
January 20, 2017- Atlanta, GA – The Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC), Morehouse School of Medicine in collaboration with the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Translational Research Network (RTRN), and the U.S. FDA Office of Minority Health will host “Ensuring Diversity, Inclusion and Meaningful Participation in Clinical Trials: The Model of the ABC Cardiovascular Study (A CME Program).” The training
workshop will be held March 10 and 11, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia.More than 150 physicians, clinicians, academic researchers, healthcare professionals and community, patient advocates and citizen scientists will convene to identify best practices and strategies for recruiting and retaining African Americans and other under-represented minority groups in National Institutes of Health (NIH) and industry-sponsored clinical trials. Participants will discuss how to encourage and enroll under-represented minority groups into the ABC Cardiovascular Study as well as NIH Precision Medicine Initiative (All of Us)
studies.

The training workshop will feature medical experts from the Clinical Trials and Community Physicians Network, Duke University Medical Center, and the Merck Corporation.

“Across the nation, minority groups are disproportionately affected by chronic diseases and cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of death for individuals regardless of race/ethnicity and gender,” explained Elizabeth Ofili, M.D., Senior Associate Dean of Clinical and Translational Research, Morehouse School of Medicine and Principal Investigator, RCMI Translational Research Network. “The training workshop will enable us to focus on building one of the most comprehensive patient databases of minority patients with CVD and other related conditions,” continued Ofili.
The ABC Cardiovascular Study will serve as a resource for enrolling research participants, ensuring compliance and alignment of ethical requirements and managing and sharing research data with appropriate study stakeholders.One- ABC Cardiovascular Study According to Dr. Barbara Hutchinson, President of the Association of Black Cardiologists, “The ABC Cardiovascular Study is an important step forward in engaging African American patients in clinical trials.”
For more information about the ABC Cardiovascular Study workshop, contact Nicole Crowell, Project Director, RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN) via e-mail at ncrowell@msm.edu or visit http://www.rtrn.net/abc-workshop/Complete registration at http://dtccweb.rtrn.net/ABCWorkshopReg/Default.aspx
Participants are eligible for Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits.
The Training Workshop to Ensure Diversity, Inclusion and Meaningful Participation in Clinical Trials, the ABC Cardiovascular Study (A CME Program) is sponsored by FDA Conference Grant: 1R13FD005981-01.Co-sponsored by the RCMI Translational Research Network (RTRN) funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health (NIH), through Grant: U54MD008149.

The conference is also supported by the RCMI Clinical and Translational Research Center from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Grant: 8 U54 MD007588, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1TR000454. The content of the workshop is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM)
Founded in 1975, MSM is among the nation’s leading educators of primary care physicians and was recognized by
Annals of Internal Medicine in 2011 as the top institution in the first study of U.S. medical schools for our social mission based on our production of primary care physicians, training of underrepresented minority doctors and placement of doctors practicing in underserved communities. Our faculty and alumni are noted for excellence in teaching, research and public policy, as well as exceptional patient care. Morehouse School of Medicine is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award doctoral and master’s degrees.   For more information, please visit www.msm.edu.

About the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC)
Founded in 1974, the Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc., (ABC) is a nonprofit organization with an international membership of 1,700 health professionals, lay members of the community (Community Health Advocates), corporate members, and institutional members. The ABC is dedicated to eliminating the disparities related to cardiovascular disease in all people of color. Today, the ABC’s public and private partnerships continue to increase our impact in communities across the nation.

The Association of Black Cardiologists, Inc. is fully accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). For more information, visit http://abcardio.org/.

About the Research Centers in Minority Institutions Translational Research Network (RTRN)
RTRN was established in 2007 by a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the minority research universities, colleges and medical schools of the National Institutes of Health RCMI program under a common goal of fostering collaborations and leveraging the expertise, infrastructure and resources of the member research institutions to accelerate the quality and pace of transformative research on diseases that disproportionately affect underserved populations and communities. For more information, visit www.rtrn.net.

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