In 1997, when I was a resident at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, an African American teenager was found dead just blocks away from the teaching hospitals. He had died of an asthma attack while clutching his inhaler.
It is widely known that racial and ethnic minorities in the United States have higher rates of diseases such as asthma and cancer, and receive worse care. Compared with white people with similar conditions, minority individuals get fewer heart bypasses and influenza vaccinations. Less well known is the fact that many drugs work better in people of European origin than in others. One class of asthma drug (long-acting β2-agonists) is even associated with higher mortality in African Americans.
Populations of non-European descent are harmed because they are not studied as intensely, and clues that could reveal new aspects of disease biology are missed. Including diverse populations in clinical and biomedical research is a must, ethically and scientifically. Research infrastructure needs to be retooled accordingly.
