The trust-builder: a cancer center director’s try-it-all strategy for breaking the barriers between research and Black patients

STAT August 3, 2022
Angus Chen

TRIALS AND TRUST: This is the second part of a series on health equity and diversity in clinical trials and cancer research.

RICHMOND, Va. — The residents agreed: Nobody like Robert Winn — director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center — had ever visited the neighborhood before. This development on the outskirts of Richmond, more parking spots and asphalt than trees and lawn, was “the hood,” after all, they said. “This neighborhood — it’s been so long since we had anybody who even cares to come,” said Glenda Barnhart, a 68-year-old resident. Certainly not anybody from the big hospital.

And now, not only was this doctor with a cheesy grin and a bouncy step before them — he’d...

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