LICR Ambassadors explain why clinical research is personally meaningful

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month

Each year, Americans celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15 by focusing on the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America. The commemoration began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson and was expanded by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 to cover a 30-day period beginning on September 15 and ending on October 15. It was enacted into law on August 17, 1988, with the approval of Public Law 100-402.

The day of September 15 is significant, because it is the anniversary of independence for Latin American countries Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on September 16 and September 18, respectively. Also, Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, which is October 12, falls within this 30-day period.

Latinos in Clinical Research (LICR) offers an opportunity to connect clinical researchers from all different parts of the world and from different clinical research backgrounds to network, learn and share. LICR would like to celebrate its own shining stars by profiling some of them.

Christine Narro, BHS, COA, is a clinical research associate in San Antonio, Texas. She believes that, “Clinical research is exciting. When you’re working on life-changing medicines and devices to save and prolong life, it’s doing something good for humanity.”

Christine joined the military and trained as an eye tech. As a reservist, she needed a full-time job and got into clinical research in 2012, beginning as a surgical coordinator, then a clinical research coordinator. She worked for a scientist at Lackland Air Force Base and then went back to ophthalmology. After meeting Dan Sfera online, she joined LICR, got recruited as a clinical research associate and got her bachelor’s degree. “Now I’m excited to be working for a sponsor on a vision care team,” she said.

“It’s important to bring Latinos into clinical trials, because we need data for people of diverse backgrounds of all kinds,” Christine explained. “We need to make sure that medicines and devices help everybody by increasing the diversity in the patient population. We need to build trust by getting more faces that people can relate to and who know the language and culture into clinical research.”

Christine believes that it is going to take more change, because there can be a “disconnect” between sponsors and patients or sites. She attributes that disconnect to differences in mission. The sponsors have the mission of creating devices or medicines and getting them to market. Sites have to develop protocols, do the research and make FDA submissions. Patients want to know the results of the studies.

“Eventually, there will be a tracker for clinical research as there is a tracker for ordering a pizza, so that people can have access throughout the process,” she said. “COVID has had a big impact on clinical trials and hopefully will provide the basis for fast tracking research on other diseases.”

Cassandra Andrade, director of strategic accounts at TransPerfect Life Sciences, started her career in public affairs for a company providing vendor services to sponsors, recruiters and clinical research organizations. As a newcomer in the industry, she reached out o Ashely Margo and joined LICR to chat and brainstorm.

“LICR helps me to understand different needs and approaches,” Cassandra said. “It’s great to have a group of colleagues and peers to brainstorm ideas and make friends and connections. LICR fills a need and offers advocacy.”

Cassandra supports sponsors and contract research organizations with translation in South Florida. She has done recruitment and supported collaborative work environments with technology. During COVID, as remote monitoring became necessary, she learned that “nice to have” technology became overnight needs. She also learned that there were so many roles for people with various backgrounds in clinical research.

“Because COVID affected everybody, it highlighted the ups and downs of the clinical research industry,” Cassandra said. “It also prompted more action on diversity and inclusion in clinical trials.”

She added, “In LICR we all come together to contribute to our mission: to educate and empower people to bring Latinos into the workforce and get Latinos to participate in clinical trials. I’m grateful to share and contribute.”

Angelica Quiroz-Castaneda, talent management and inclusion coordinator of PPD in San Antonio, Texas, got into clinical research because she “heard that the CRO that I was applying for was an amazing company to work for.” She was new to the field, and in her research about the company, she also learned about the many growth opportunities there.

As she explained, “It wasn’t till about 6 months into my job that I realized how important clinical research really was and the impact it had on the Latino community. This energized me to get even more involved with the education and outreach of the importance of clinical research.”

Angelica believes that it is important for Latinos to work in clinical research, because, as she explained, “In our culture, trust is very important and doesn’t come easy. For example, my grandmother trusts her doctor that’s she’s seen for several years, but new doctors and nurses take time to build trust. When she sees people that look like her doing this work, trust is a little easier.”

She added, “When there are more Latinos who are involved in medicine -- doctors, nurses, pharmacists, CRAs and others -- we are able to explain to people, like my grandmother, how important new medicine is and that there are many Latinos doing this important work. This builds trust and understanding and helps the outreach and education we do in the Latino community.”

According to Angelica, it is important for Latinos to participate in clinical research trials for one very important reason: Latinos need equal representation. As she said, “Latinos have the highest rate of chronic disease in the nation. Without equal representation, there’s a chance that we will not learn important data about these diseases that negatively impact Latinos.”

Angelica said that what has been most rewarding about being in clinical research is that she now has the education and the ability to explain the importance of clinical trials to her family and especially her grandmother. She concluded, “I know that this is the beginning of helping many others in my family and my community. If I can make a small difference in what I am doing and one day it helps someone, it will all have been worth it to me.”