Eliminating Disparities In Clinical Trials CLAS-ACT Project
The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Minority Health (OMH) developed National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) in 2000. In 2007, as an outgrowth of the EDICT Project, the Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine received initial funding for the “CLAS AND Clinical Trials” (CLAS-ACT) Project from the Office of Minority Health, with additional support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities and the DHHS Office on Women’s Health (Cooperative Agreement Number MPCMP051006-03).
The goal of CLAS-ACT is to increase the implementation of CLAS Standards in clinical trials. CLAS-ACT was designed to help researchers and research organizations implement CLAS standards consistently and systematically from participant recruitment through all study phases.
This Website includes the following CLAS-ACT materials:
- Individual Research Self-Assessment that you can use online to generates an immediate score describing the degree to which a study complies with National CLAS Standards.
- Individual Research Self-Assessment in PDF format that you can print out for review and completion off-line later.
- Institutional Research Self-Study Guidelines in PDF format that you can print out for review and completion later. An online version of the Institutional Self-Study is in development.
- CLAS-ACT Handbook in PDF format. The Handbook contains background information, the content of the Individual Research Self-Assessment and the Institutional Research Self-Study Guidelines, and additional resources.
- Additional Resources include additional Websites and references related to the various CLAS Standards as well as cultural competence in general. Both the online and PDF Assessments and Handbook include many of these resources to help you address CLAS Standards that may need further attention.
- CLAS-ACT Project Report includes the background, methods, and future plans for the project.
You can use CLAS-ACT materials to:
- Establish current baseline data and measure progress toward implementing CLAS standards in the future.
- Assess how well a single clinical trial or study implements CLAS Standards.
- Assess how well your organization implements CLAS Standards across multiple trials or studies.
- Increase research staff and administrator awareness of issues related to CLAS and the need to address them.
We want very much for CLAS-ACT to be as useful as possible. If you have suggestions for improving the Website, questions for more information, or would like to discuss using CLAS-ACT for research purposes, please contact:
EDICT CLAS-ACT Project
E-mail: edict@bcm.edu
Fax: 713-798-3990