Health Equity Research
Evidence should reflect the people who will receive the care. We build the relationships that make that research possible — in the health centers, safety-net systems and community organizations where under-represented populations are actually reached.
Representation is a condition of the evidence, not a courtesy.
A therapy studied in a population that does not resemble the people who will receive it produces evidence that is weaker for all of them. The gaps are well documented and they are durable: Black, Latino and Indigenous communities, LGBTQIA+ people, rural and uninsured populations, and people living with HIV remain under-represented in the studies that set the standard of care.
The settings that reach those populations are the hardest for a research sponsor to open. Federally qualified health centers, safety-net and rural systems, Indian health organizations, cancer centers and the community organizations alongside them are not on a list anyone can buy. They are reached through relationships, and relationships take years.
We did not come to this from research. We came to it from the operators.
Those organizations are the ones Nero already serves. Health centers, rural and safety-net systems and cancer programs are who we work with across BenECO and RevECO — on the workforce that staffs them and the revenue cycle that funds them.
The relationships that work is built on are the same relationships research participation depends on. We are trusted in these settings because we have been useful in them first, on the operational problems that keep their leadership up at night.
Our Health Equity Research partnership.
We work with a global pharmaceutical company to build a network of the organizations that serve the patients research most often misses, and to connect them with the research, programs, studies and trials they can help shape. The aim is participation that opens in months rather than years, and a network that is stronger after every study than before it.
We do not design, conduct or analyze research, and no patient-level or protected health information is involved at any point. Our work is relationships, standing and access — the part that cannot be bought.
The settings, and the people they serve.
Health centers
Federally qualified health centers and the networks and primary care associations that convene them.
Safety-net and rural systems
Rural health clinics, safety-net hospitals and Indian health organizations serving communities far from academic centers.
Cancer and specialty programs
Cancer centers and disparities-focused research programs where representation is measured and reported.
Community and advocacy
Organizations carrying standing in the communities themselves — the endorsement cold outreach cannot buy.
The populations
Black, Latino and Indigenous communities, LGBTQIA+ people, rural and uninsured populations, and people living with HIV.
One relationship, many doors
Where an association or network can carry the introduction, one relationship reaches dozens of organizations.