Irma Thomas gets animated about the importance of clinical trials

The Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas, is spreading the word about clinical trials in a new animated short co-produced by a Tulane University community engaged research initiative.

The Louisiana Community Engagement Alliance against COVID-19 Disparities (LA-CEAL), a statewide consortium led by Tulane and Xavier University, teamed up with NoiseFilter, a health education podcast and animated series, on the project. 

This short video, titled Clinical Trials: The Heart and Soul of Science, explains how clinical trials work, illustrates the pervasiveness of clinical trials in our daily lives and addresses the history of structural racism in medicine. The animation also addresses the underrepresentation of minority communities in clinical trials, an imbalance which can lead to negative health outcomes.

The video features Thomas and Drs. MarkAlain Dery and Eric Griggs explaining how clinical trials move medicine forward. 

“This creative video explaining clinical research at a local, relevant level illustrates the value of community-academic partners working together to address challenging public health and clinical issues,” said Dr. M.A. “Tonette" Krousel-Wood, LA-CEAL’s lead investigator and associate provost for the health sciences at Tulane.

LA-CEAL is a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative awarded to Tulane University School of Medicine that aims to address health disparities related to the pandemic. For more information about LA-CEAL and the NIH Community Engagement Alliance initiative, visit haltcovidla.com and covid19community.nih.gov.