Jane Doe also feels that studies such as this are extremely beneficial.
"There are a lot of medical problems that we have as women that could be related to diabetes and glucose intolerance," she says. "I thought I was going through premature menopause and found out that it was something else entirely."
Would she participate, in another medical study?
"It depends on what it is and why they are doing the study," she says. "Would I do drug testing? Probably not. But something like this, yes. It can only benefit me because it will improve the quality of my life."
And that is exactly the point Ratner makes about the importance of minorities participating in medical research.
"When [participants] ask at the end of a study, `What do you have for me now?,' that is very reassuring to me because it means we are meeting out commitment to patient care," says Ratner.
"Truth, honesty, and providing appropriate medical care is what [minority participants] expect from us," he continues. "As more and more participate, ethnic minorities will get the benefits from medical research that they have been excluded from in the past."
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