As we begin a new year and a change of leadership in Washington, we are at a key moment in time to reimagine the biomedical research enterprise.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone's lives, whether directly through illness, unexpected deaths, impact on global economies, and the careers and livelihoods of many individuals and families. The biomedical research field was impacted by COVID-19, including clinical trial recruitment slowdowns, research labs temporarily shuttered and limited to "essential" lab staff, and "a run" on biomedical supplies and reagents as companies and researchers diverted resources to the needed hundreds of new R&D programs to study COVID-19 and develop vaccines and treatments.
At the same time, conversations, action, and marches around racial injustices have surfaced inequalities to the forefront of our collective societal mind.
Racial inequalities and systemic racism are well-documented, including in cancer care and biomedical research. Racial inequalities extend to the biomedical research profession. Racial inequalities in healthcare and health outcomes were even more rapidly, and dramatically, made visible seeing who has been impacted and experienced higher mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic, namely Black/African American, as well as Latinx and indigenous populations, all of whom make up a significant part of the essential work force across the US.
An Opportunity for Biomedical Research to do Better
One silver lining of the collision of COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice conversations for biomedical research, is that the challenges amplified in 2020 have shown us what is possible in science and biomedical research when "open science" is the standard.
Open collaboration, sharing of data, information, and resources across academic institutions, governments, pharmaceutical companies, philanthropies, medical journal publishers, and professional societies accelerated COVID research. The open and collaborative response to coronavirus by scientists across these sectors and across the globe resulted in the rapid development and approvals of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.
Treatments and vaccines were developed in record time because of these multi-sector collaborations, sharing of data and publishing quickly including pre-prints and with publishers making articles open-access.
This open science approach enabled each team of researchers to rapidly learn from and build upon the work done by others. Clinical trials were launched and enrolled at record speed, and regulatory bodies across the globe conducted regulatory review at a record a pace while maintaining rigorous medical standards and transparency.
Nonprofit funding organizations should and must contemplate how their activities and approaches to advancing research should be reimagined to accelerate progress similar to what has been accomplished with the "open science" approaches deployed for COVID-19 research and to build a more diverse and equitable biomedical research enterprise.
Open Science, Collaboration and Data Sharing
Drs. Michael M. Crow (President, Arizona State University) and Greg Tananbaum (Director, Open Research Funders Group) do an outstanding job in their December 2020 Scientific American article, "We Must Tear Down the Barriers That Impede Scientific Progress," which summarizes the barriers and possible solutions to accelerate scientific progress through open science.
Open science in the fight against COVID-19 witnessed the research community taking down the barriers cited by Crow and Tananbaum, including articles locked behind subscription paywalls, data hoarding by individual or institutions, and siloed lab work. Each of these barriers greatly inhibit the pace of scientific progress.
Imagine the possibilities for cancer research if the same open science principles were applied (remove paywalls, data sharing not-hoarding, and broken siloes). The pace of cancer research would be accelerated. Like in COVID-19 research, teams of scientists from different institutions and different countries could more rapidly build off the discoveries – as well as pitfalls and challenges – made by other scientists.
The entire enterprise (funding agencies, universities and the academic reward system, biotech and pharmaceutical industry, publishers, government, and individual scientific behavior) need to adopt open science in order to more rapidly advance progress in their disease area.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
There is an unprecedented opportunity for biomedical research to do better in the realms of racial justice and equality. In their article entitled "The Race toward Equity: Increasing Racial Diversity in Cancer Research and Cancer Care," Drs. Donita Brady (University of Pennsylvania) and Ashani Weeraratna (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) eloquently summarize areas cancer research and cancer care must focus on to address the issues of diversity and racism in cancer research and care delivery.
Nonprofit cancer research organizations and other funders of biomedical research also need to better when it comes to racial diversity in cancer research and care. A funding organization should measure the diversity of their pipeline of applicants, awardees, and alumni that return for future applications. At the same time, nonprofit organizations need to review and adopt any necessary changes to ensure they have a diverse staff, advisors, committees, and boards.
Healthier Future Essay Challenge: All Ideas Welcomed
The biomedical research enterprise is filled with many of the brightest minds and individuals desirous to make a real impact in society and improving health and reducing suffering from disease. The people inside the biomedical enterprise are aware of — and have often written about — the barriers to advancing open science and achieving racial justice and equality.
There is an open Healthier Future Essay Challenge being spearheaded by members of the Health Research Alliance. Essays are due March 11, 2021. I'm honored to serve on the panel of judges to review essay submissions.