Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, California, United States of America.
Department of Sociology, University of Illinois, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Feb 7;17(2):e0263750. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263750. eCollection 2022.
To identify meanings of and challenges to enacting equitable diversification of genomics research, and specifically precision medicine research (PMR), teams.
We conducted in-depth interviews with 102 individuals involved in three U.S.-based precision medicine research consortia and conducted over 400 observation hours of their working group meetings, consortium-wide meetings, and conference presentations. We also reviewed published reports on genomic workforce diversity (WFD), particularly those relevant to the PMR community.
Our study finds that many PMR teams encounter challenges as they strive to achieve equitable diversification on scientific teams. Interviewees articulated that underrepresented team members were often hired to increase the study's capacity to recruit diverse research participants, but are limited to on-the-ground staff positions with little influence over study design. We find existing hierarchies and power structures in the academic research ecosystem compound challenges for equitable diversification.
Our results suggest that meaningful diversification of PMR teams will only be possible when team equity is prioritized as a core value in academic research communities.
确定实施基因组学研究（尤其是精准医学研究（PMR）团队）公平多样化的意义和挑战。
我们对参与三个美国精准医学研究联盟的 102 名个人进行了深入访谈，并对他们的工作组会议、联盟全体会议和会议演讲进行了 400 多个小时的观察。我们还审查了有关基因组劳动力多样性（WFD）的已发表报告，特别是与 PMR 社区相关的报告。
我们的研究发现，许多 PMR 团队在努力实现科学团队公平多样化方面遇到了挑战。受访者表示，代表性不足的团队成员通常是为了增加研究招募不同研究参与者的能力而被雇用的，但他们只能担任实地工作人员，对研究设计的影响有限。我们发现，学术研究生态系统中现有的等级制度和权力结构加剧了公平多样化的挑战。
我们的研究结果表明，只有当学术研究社区将团队公平性作为核心价值观优先考虑时，PMR 团队的真正多样化才有可能实现。
