MediciGlobal

There are cultures that distrust Western Medicine and these beliefs can have a profound effect on how we design clinical protocols and their supporting patient recruitment materials.

This news report illustrates how translational medicine will become of increasing importance as we expand clinical trials into unfamiliar global regions:

In the 1970s, and after the Vietnam War there was a major migration of the Hmong to Fresno, California. Most emigrated from the hills of Laos, Cambodia. They brought with them folk medicines and a distrust of Western medicine. Many don’t like to give blood, even just a blood test - an essential part of Hep B testing and clinical trials. They feel it will weaken them physically and spiritually.

With over 17 percent of the Hmong/Laotian community living with Hepatitis B, most of the people infected don’t know they have it. The problem is, even if Hmong did know they had it, most of them wouldn’t treat it. That’s because their collective belief system dictates they handle this, and other diseases, as a spiritual problem.

This example of cultural beliefs raises some critical issues for clinical trials that involve Western medicine. I believe it reinforces the fact that a patient centric approach to patient recruitment applies in all situations. The cardinal rule is to know the patient audience—not through the eyes of medical practitioners who interpret their beliefs but from patients directly.

Examples such as this reaffirm the need for a GLOCAL approach to patient recruitment: Global planning + local implementation = GLOCAL. I welcome your thoughts.

Sources:

Treating Hepatitis B Runs Up Against Hmong Culture

Hepatitis B Campaign Targets Asians in San Francisco