Niti Goel, MD: Lack of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Clinical Trials of Psoriatic Arthritis

Poster Presenter: Niti Goel, MD, Therapeutic Head of Rheumatology, TrialSpark, and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine

Poster Title: Lack of Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Clinical Trials of Psoriatic Arthritis

Ignite Session 1B
Saturday, November 12 | 1:10–1:15 p.m. ET | Center City Stage
All ACR Convergence 2022 poster presentations are available on demand to registered meeting participants through October 31, 2023.

What is your poster about?
This research reports that most articles reporting on the key phase 3 trials for approved targeted therapeutics for the treatment of psoriatic arthritis fail to report the racial and ethnic makeup of enrolled individuals; however, even when they do, on the whole, less than 10 percent of the enrolled population are of non-white race. None of the articles reported data on Hispanic/Latinx ethnicity.

Why did you decide to investigate this topic?
I became interested when asked to provide my perspectives on this topic at the Group for Research and Assessment of Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis (GRAPPA) annual meeting in 2021 and because I, as a woman of Asian Indian ethnicity, have encountered specialist physicians who don’t recognize that both psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis are prevalent in racial and ethnically diverse individuals in the U.S. (although at about half the rates of whites, as cited in my poster). Further, even though we think in the last few years we may have better addressed diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) issues in clinical trials, this research shows that does not appear to be the case, since the recruitment of racially and ethnically diverse individuals is not different in the trials published later versus earlier.

What are you working on next related to this research?
Personally, I will work with others to try to improve ethnic and racial representation in rheumatology clinical trials. At the GRAPPA annual meeting this year, we had a follow-up DEI session about the relative lack of research addressing therapeutic differences in women versus men with psoriatic disease. Lihi Eder, MD, PhD, out of Toronto, is initiating the SAGE study to examine this issue further. 

What excites you most about your work?
I strongly believe that awareness is the first step in bringing about solutions. I have certainly encountered racially and ethnically diverse people who have psoriatic arthritis when I see patients. We presume the drugs we prescribe will work for them, but when we haven’t tested the drugs formally in them, how do we know? By making researchers aware that we have a significant knowledge gap in understanding the efficacy and safety of available psoriatic arthritis treatments in racially and ethnically diverse individuals, then hopefully that will spur researchers to get the problem addressed through further research.