Natella Rakhmanina, MD, PhD for ACCP IDE Committee

Speaker: Natella Rakhmanina, MD, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Director of HIV Services, Children's National Hospital, George Washington University

Natella Rakhmanina, MD, PhD: Hello everyone. My name is Natella Rakhmanina and I'm a physician with a background in pediatrics and HIV infection. I'm also very honored to chair the American College of Clinical Pharmacology Inclusivity, Diversity & Equity Committee. I want to tell you the story why we have created this committee and how it emerged to be one of the most important bodies within our professional organization. A few years ago we started a conversation about equity of women in representation of science and the conferences meetings and the proper form of addressing women at the meetings, introducing them equally as their male colleagues. But very quickly as a college we have realized that the conversation about Inclusivity, Diversity & Equity doesn't stop with just gender equity doesn't stop with just gender, inclusivity and diversity. It goes by far beyond including racial ethnic diversity, religious diversity and many other aspects of our personal and professional life. And the goal of creating this committee was really to make sure that every Member who is a current member, every future Member or prospective member, Every Student/Trainee who considers to join the organization feels welcome, feels that the full potential can be realized here, feels fully respected, fully integrated and fully part of the A C C P community. I'm very proud to say that after forming the committee we have dedicated ourselves to advancing this agenda of I DE or Inclusivity, Diversity & Equity within ACCP. And we found a great response from the Leadership of the college and from overall membership. We have been supported in a number of activities including most importantly creating the first survey for our organization that goes beyond just membership survey but rather looks at how people feel that these issues addressed in organizations, what advice they have for us to go forward, what experiences they have had at the ACCP. I'm happy to share with you that the results of that survey are posted at the A C C P website on the web page of our committee. But also most importantly, this results indicated that overall as an organization, we clearly have this principles integrated in our work. Do we have space to take them further? We definitely do. And that's what this committee is advancing to go forward. We're introducing this number of innovations within the college including the booth for I DW at this Annual Meeting in 2022. I'm hoping you're standing in front of the booth and watching this video as as I speak. We also have started the number of documents including the publication in our journal addressing the inclusivity diversity and equity and clinical trials. We have also commented on F D A position and new guidance on inclusivity diversity and equity and clinical trials. And among our membership. We have made a number of adjustments that allow us to be more respectful, more appreciative, more inclusive of every Member within our community. Our committee is comprised of people of diverse background from every aspect of background that you can bring in and we really welcome you to join our work. We are working on two arenas. One is advancing the Inclusivity, Diversity & Equity within the professional membership organizations like ours. So it's primarily aimed at Members of the organization's current and prospective Members and past Members as well. But another one is our impact in the world of clinical pharmacology. We feel that a lot has been done in the recent years, but a lot has to be done. And our goal is to really keep the agenda of I DE high in all activities of the college to make sure that through a professional outreach our trainings we provide our scientific research work, our drug development work, regulatory clinic, cultural works always addresses the issues of I DE. So please join us in making sure the I DE continues to thrive and flourish in our organization that we continue to be advocate within our scientific research and professional communities for I DE. And I hope you will consider joining as well the committee at ACCP. Thank you very much for listening.