As part of its long-term effort to improve access to its technology, Abbott is trying to reduce barriers to participation in clinical trials, especially for groups of people who have traditionally been underrepresented in clinical trials and underserved by medical technology.
About 40% of the US population is a member of an historically underrepresented demographic group, but multiple studies have shown that members of these populations are underrepresented in clinical trials of new medical technologies even though they are disproportionately impacted by some chronic conditions. For example, African-Americans are twice as likely to have peripheral artery disease as any other ethnic group and four times as likely to require an amputation
